Why Josh Wolfe Wants to Back Society’s Outcasts

Josh Wolfe believes that society’s outcasts are the ones who hold the secret to human progress. And he’s dedicated his life to spotting them early. 

Wolfe is the co-founder and managing director of Lux Capital, a New York City-based early-stage venture firm whose guiding philosophy is “the more ambitious, the better.” Lux recently raised $1B across two new funds to invest in frontier technology companies that focus on areas such as neurostimulation, nuclear energy, and synthetic biology. (You can see Lux’s portfolio companies, including biotech startup Kallyope and 3D virtual reality firm Matterport, in action here.)

Although Lux has maintained a relatively low profile over the years, the firm had a banner year in 2019 as two of its portfolio companies were scooped up in massive acquisitions. Auris Health sold to Johnson & Johnson for $3.4B, and CTRL Labs sold to Facebook for somewhere between $500m and $1B, producing big returns to the firm’s outside investors.