For decades, venture capital chased the fast and the frictionless. Software startups, with low upfront costs and lightning-speed product cycles, fit the bill: build a minimum viable product, launch it, tweak it, scale it, then repeat. But as Natalya Wallin sees it, the software heyday is over. “Software may no longer be the default goldmine,” she says, not in terms of value, but in where early-stage funding is flowing.
Humans are now in the era of deep tech, hardware-heavy, science-driven, and often inspired by the intelligence of nature itself. From circular materials to climate-adaptive agriculture, the next generation of breakthrough innovation won’t be built in code alone. And yet, much of the venture capital ecosystem continues to face challenges in supporting these ambitious solutions at the earliest stages.
“There’s a valley of death for deep tech founders,” Wallin says. “Their ventures often require extensive R&D. They need to pilot with industry. They need time and capital to prove something in the real world, not just run user tests.”
Wallin is the founder of Vitality, a venture fund that supports pre-seed and seed-stage startups working on innovative solutions in sectors such as agriculture, the built environment, materials, and human health. What unites these companies is not just their impact; it’s their relationship to nature. Vitality backs technologies and systems that are energy-efficient, resilient, and regenerative; in short, designed like nature.
Historically, the barriers to deep tech investment have been structural. Longer time horizons, greater technical risk, and higher initial capital needs made these companies less attractive to VCs trained on the “10x-in-18-months” software model. But that model, Wallin argues, no longer matches the reality of society’s needs or the shape of the future.
“I believe that capital, technology, and nature must collaborate rather than compete,” she says. “Fundamentals such as food, water, housing, and health, have often been underprioritized. These are the real levers for planetary and human vitality.”
But creating physical solutions for real-world systems isn’t easy or cheap. Many of the most promising technologies require extended R&D cycles, early access to manufacturing or supply chains, and trusted industry pilots. Much of that doesn’t easily fit into a tidy pitch deck or a three-month sprint.
Wallin sees the biggest challenge not in the quality of ideas, but in the gaps between them and commercialization. Many of these startups get their start in university labs, often funded by grants or non-dilutive capital. They develop early prototypes, build research credibility, and may even attract attention from Series A investors. But between that research phase and scalable commercialization, there’s often a funding gap.
This is exactly what Wallin is on a mission to fill. “If we can just connect the dots between that brilliant lab work and market traction, we can de-risk these startups for later-stage investors and accelerate their impact,” she says.
That’s why Vitality specifically focuses on pre-seed and seed capital. It’s not just about writing checks, Wallin says, but about being the connective tissue between science, industry, and capital. It’s about creating the supportive infrastructure for solutions that don’t move fast and break things but move deliberately and regenerate them.
Wallin doesn’t want Vitality to be the only fund doing this work. In fact, she’s explicit about her desire to create a broader movement: one that reshapes how capital flows to the ideas that matter most. As she says, “It’s important that more funds step in early, rather than waiting for others to de-risk these ventures.”
The timing, she believes, is right. As artificial intelligence disrupts software and traditional tech cycles, many VCs are being forced to rethink their investment theses. The ‘easy wins’ may no longer be as straightforward or relevant as they once were. What’s rising instead is a renewed awareness of the physical, planetary, and infrastructural systems that humans depend on.
“We are at a structural transition point in venture,” she says. “You can feel it. There’s growing recognition that some of the most meaningful opportunities may lie in addressing real human and planetary needs.”
The shift requires a new mindset among investors, one that prizes grit, endurance, systems thinking, and resilience over speed, scale, and sizzle. Wallin, a long-distance mountain runner and former biologist, knows a thing or two about operating in complexity and navigating uncertainty.
“Nature can be one of our most insightful teachers,” she says. “Its systems are balanced, energy-efficient, and incredibly adaptive. That’s the kind of technology we need to build now and the kind of capital we need to design to support it.”
Wallin points out that half of the world’s GDP, amounting to $44 trillion, is directly dependent on nature, yet the essential systems that support economic stability continue to be degraded. The companies that Vitality backs don’t just aim to stop that erosion. They aim to reverse it and to build business models that are both profitable and regenerative. Wallin says, “If we do this right, we could see not only better startups, but also improvements in cities, food systems, and long-term futures.”
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