S32 is what happens when Bill Maris decides curiosity is not a hobby but infrastructure. In 2017, after building Google Ventures into a capital engine inside Alphabet, Bill Maris founded Section 32 with a thesis rooted in consequence. Back the founders operating where technology and healthcare collide, where the science is dense, the markets are unforgiving, and the upside reshapes industries. The name references a section of the tax code tied to qualified small business stock, but the mandate is bigger than tax efficiency. It is about accelerating breakthroughs that matter.
By 2021, S32 closed its fourth fund at approximately $740M, bringing assets under management to over $1.8B. Scale, yes. But more importantly, signal. At that time, leadership included Bill Maris alongside Michael Pellini, M.D., Steve Kafka, Ph.D., and Andy Harrison as Managing Partners, with Nina Labatt serving as COO and CFO. Offices in San Diego, Silicon Valley, and Boston positioned the firm inside three of the most concentrated corridors of biotech and software innovation. In a market that rewards proximity to talent and data, geography is strategy.
The investment thesis is explicit and disciplined. S32 invests at the frontiers of technology and healthcare, spanning software, cybersecurity, advanced computation, space, climate technologies, biotechnology, therapeutics, diagnostics, genomics, and precision medicine. The connective tissue is technical depth. These are not surface-level bets. When machine learning reshapes drug discovery or cloud-native architecture becomes mission-critical infrastructure, S32 aims to underwrite the platforms that endure. More than 70 companies have entered the portfolio under this lens, each reflecting a bias toward complexity and long-term impact.
The portfolio reads like a cross-section of the modern startup ecosystem at scale. Coinbase sits at the core of crypto infrastructure. CrowdStrike guards enterprise networks in a threat landscape that evolves by the hour. Relay Therapeutics applies computational insight to protein motion. Vir Biotechnology targets infectious disease with scientific precision. Thrive Earlier Detection, acquired by Exact Sciences, advanced cancer screening through data-driven diagnostics. Different verticals, same pattern recognition: back founders solving hard problems where technology and biology intersect with market urgency.
S32’s edge is not just capital. It is fluency across domains that rarely speak the same language. Regulatory pathways, enterprise procurement cycles, clinical validation, cloud deployment. Founders building in this tier of the startup ecosystem need investors who understand that timelines are nonlinear and that defensibility is earned in labs and server rooms alike. The firm’s history suggests comfort in those environments, where science is measured in peer review and software in uptime.
In a market saturated with noise, S32 represents a quieter signal. Frontier focus. Technical rigor. Capital aligned with consequence. For founders operating where computation meets cure, or where infrastructure becomes indispensable, this is a firm worth studying closely. For operators seeking roles inside companies tackling cybersecurity, infectious disease, precision medicine, or advanced computation, the S32 portfolio is a live map of opportunity within the evolving startup ecosystem.
Follow this firm. Study their founders. Track their plays.
