SI

Signal Catalyst Fund — Pre-Seed VC Firm ($300K–$6.0M Checks)

VC
Chicago, ILWebsite

Signal Catalyst Fund is a Pre-Seed venture capital firm based in Chicago, IL investing in Other, Developer Tools, AI / ML. The firm typically writes $300K–$6.0M checks and has 33 portfolio companies in our records.

Check size
$300K–$6.0M
Portfolio
33 companies on record
Partners
2 listed
Stage
Pre-Seed
Sectors
Other, Developer Tools, AI / ML, Enterprise, SaaS, Climate / Energy, Healthcare, Security, Consumer
HQ
Chicago, IL
AUM
Not in our records

Last verified: 2026-08-31

How to approach: cold outreach ok
Stage

Pre-Seed

Check Size

$300K – $6.0M

Portfolio

33+ companies

Team

2 partners

Investor activity
Investments in last 12 months: 0

Investment Thesis

Sector-focused fund investing in wireless, RF innovations, and next-generation chip-building infrastructure.

How Signal Catalyst Fund invests

Signal Catalyst Fund is a vc firm based in Chicago, IL. The firm invests at the Pre-Seed stage, with a focus on Other, Developer Tools, AI / ML, Enterprise, SaaS. It does not invest in Consumer.

Signal Catalyst Fund typically writes checks of $300K–$6.0M per investment.

Signal Catalyst Fund has backed 33 companies in our records, including WaveNext Systems, FabScale Innovations, Groq.

Partners & Team

RG

Rebecca Gaffney

General Partner

5G Networks
RF Engineering
Hardware
GC

Gad Caspy

Founding Partner / Head of Real Estate Investments

real estate investments
special situations real estate
European property markets

Industry Focus

Invests In

Other
Developer Tools
AI / ML
Enterprise
SaaS
Climate / Energy
Healthcare
Security
Consumer

Does Not Invest In

Consumer

Portfolio Companies (33)

Other

WA

WaveNext Systems

Wireless Tech
FA

FabScale Innovations

Manufacturing Infrastructure
GR

Groq

AI Hardware·Late-stage·Catalyst Fund

AI inference chipmaker providing high-speed processing for large language models

PE

Perplexity AI

AI Search·Series A-3 Preferred·Catalyst Fund

AI-powered search engine delivering cited answers from web sources

D-

d-Matrix

AI Hardware·Series C Preferred·Catalyst Fund

AI chip company specializing in efficient inference for generative AI

SA

Saildrone

Maritime Tech/Robotics·Series C-1 Preferred·Catalyst Fund

Autonomous surface vehicles for ocean data collection and maritime operations

CH

Chaos Industries

Aerospace/Defense·Series C Preferred·Catalyst Fund

Defense tech firm building advanced aerospace and robotics systems

CO

Conifers AI

Enterprise AI·Series A Preferred·Catalyst Fund

AI platform for enterprise data processing and analytics

AG

Agility Robotics

Robotics·Series C-3 Preferred·Catalyst Fund

Developer of humanoid robots for logistics and manufacturing

GE

Gecko Robotics

Industrial Robotics·Late-stage·Catalyst Fund

Industrial robotics for infrastructure inspection using ultrasonic sensors

How to pitch Signal Catalyst Fund
  • Raising at Pre-Seed? You're squarely in their sweet spot.
  • Lead with your fit in Other, Developer Tools, AI / ML — the sectors they actively back.
  • Size your ask to their typical $300K – $6.0M check.
  • cold outreach ok
  • Address your outreach to a specific partner, such as Rebecca Gaffney, General Partner.
  • A warm introduction beats a cold email. Get matched and request an intro.

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