Building the Missing Capital Infrastructure: How We Get More Tough Tech Into the World Faster

Portmanteau Capital, Schmidt Family Foundation, and The Engine invite you to join a working session on one of the most important challenges in tough tech: completing the capital continuum from validated science to commercial scale. Breakthrough science is not the bottleneck. Commercialization is. Too many promising technologies become stranded between research funding and traditional commercial capital. This convening will bring together the institutions positioned to change that: investors, lenders, government agencies, philanthropists, and founders. Together we will map where gaps remain, identify models that can bridge them, and explore how public, philanthropic, and private capital can work together to move more breakthrough technologies into the market and real world impact. This event marks the public launch of Portmanteau Capital, a new nonprofit investment fund, while bringing together the broader community needed to build a stronger commercialization ecosystem for tough tech. The program will feature keynote remarks, a panel discussion with leaders pioneering new approaches to commercialization finance, and an interactive working session focused on identifying concrete opportunities for collaboration. This event is part of Tough Tech Week, a celebration of transformational science and engineering and the companies bringing it to the world, alongside the ecosystem supporting their path to impact. Explore the full calendar of events, including demos, pitches, workshops, and networking opportunities with investors, partners, and government, at luma.com/toughtechweek.