Invent with us.
Company formation, category creation, product definition and IP from the earliest stage.
Venture super-upsideSPARKS
PHYSICAL AI VENTURES
Operator-led venture builder & investor
from zero to category leader.
To help ambitious founders build Physical AI that lead future ways of living and working.
BrainIntelligence×BodyMachines×SoulReasons to care
Scroll to exploreCompany formation → global scale
✦For long-term partners
One umbrella fund,
tailored to different LP needs.
One connected platform balancing venture super-upside, strong growth and paths to liquidity—while preserving the operating advantage that created the value.
Scale with us.
Growth capital, partnerships and operator support for companies reaching repeatability.
Strong growthRealize with us.
Selective later-stage exposure and structured paths to liquidity.
LiquidityFOR FOUNDERS
From the first hard decision to the first million units, we build shoulder-to-shoulder.
You bring a brilliant idea.
We bring the operating system to build it.
Product definition
Turn a hard insight into a category people understand.
Supply chain
Design manufacturability, quality and margin into the product.
Fundraising
Build the proof and story that unlock the right capital.
Go-to-market
Find the sharpest path from first believers to repeatable demand.
Team building
Recruit the operators and specialists the next stage requires.
IP & brand
Create defensibility—and a reason for customers to care.
✦Our thesis
Physical AI, built through Asia’s supply chain,
will bring the next level of civilization to life.
Intelligence is moving into the physical world. Asia’s engineering and manufacturing ecosystem can turn frontier technology into reliable, affordable products at global scale.
Make it
intelligent.
Frontier models, infrastructure, robotics research and the technical judgment to see what is real.
Make it
work.
Hardware, industrialization, supply chain and field discipline that can survive the physical world.
Make it
matter.
IP, product experience and narrative that earn trust, adoption and enduring cultural relevance.
✦The founder operating system
From ideas to product,
to global scale.
Sparks works alongside founders from company design through product, production, fundraising and expansion. Each layer makes the next one possible.
90%overall survival rateAcross founders’ prior fund · historical, not predictive
Build the foundation first. Earn each layer above it.
- 06Scale
Global partners, new markets and category leadership.
- 05Sell
Positioning, launch, distribution and repeatable demand.
- 04Make
Supply chain, production quality and reliable delivery.
- 03Build
Roadmap, development, testing and iteration.
- 02Assemble
Core team, equity structure and fundraising plan.
- 01Define
Mission, customer, category and first product.
✦The people beside you
Built by people who have built, backed and scaled what comes next.
Founders get working partners across research, product, manufacturing, capital and category creation—from the first hard decision through global scale.
BodyTony Chen
Founding & Managing PartnerTurns ambitious hardware into category-scale companies.
- Former GP at Hong Kong X. Early backer of EcoFlow (unicorn) and several near-unicorn hardtech companies.
- Built his edge across Philips, Canon Océ, and TE Connectivity—learning what makes products survive, scale, and feel right.
- Drives sourcing, diligence, and co-creation with deep supply-chain rigor, product instinct, and a high bar for quality.
SoulJayesh Chhatlani
Managing PartnerTurns useful machines into products people choose and remember.
- Serial entrepreneur with one exit, $4M raised and public-private innovation experience.
- Worked with William Bull, former iPod design lead and Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures.
- Leads product experience, narrative, character and emotional design.
BrainProf. Tony F. Chan
Founding PartnerConnects frontier research to the people and institutions that can build it.
- Former President of HKUST and KAUST; member of the US National Academy of Engineering.
- Built global research networks and recruited exceptional scientific talent.
- Board Director of WeRide and Trustee of the FII Institute.
Four hardtech ecosystems
Prof. Ping K. Ko
Chief AdvisorEcosystem record
- Built 4 hardtech ecosystems spanning core IC and unicorn-scale application companies.
- Portfolio: DJI, Narwal, EcoFlow, SwitchBot, SmartSens, Montage, SpaceMIT.
✦What we look for
If intelligence moves
into machines, we are interested.
01
AI infrastructure
Compute, chips, storage, packaging and optics.
02
AI brains
World models and physical intelligence.
03
Embodied systems
Humanoids, companions and intelligent machines.
04
Industrial automation
Robotic systems that manufacture and move.
05
Logistics & mobility
Autonomous vehicles, electric systems and drones.
06
Specialized robots
Purpose-built intelligence in motion.
Image notice Product imagery in this section is sourced from publicly available online materials and remains the property of the respective companies and rights holders. It is shown for identification and illustrative purposes only; Sparks claims no ownership of these images.
✦Selected portfolio from founders’ prior fund
Built alongside
category-defining companies.
Across energy, mobility, autonomy, materials, climate, companionship and frontier AI—one shared instinct: intelligence should become useful in the real world.
New energyVisit ↗
(unicorn)Portable power and intelligent energy systems for life beyond the grid.
Autonomous systemsVisit ↗
Surface-cleaning robots that restore and maintain the world’s waterways.
Electric mobilityVisit ↗
High-performance mid-drive systems turning bicycles into capable electric machines.
Advanced materialsVisit ↗
easyforming
Breakthrough automotive steel and forming technology—from atom to car body.
Climate technologyVisit ↗
Electricity-free passive cooling inspired by nature and engineered for global scale.
AI companionsVisit ↗
Warm AI technology that gives play, imagination and companionship a new form.
Frontier intelligenceVisit ↗
ANTHROPICSafe, capable AI systems advancing the frontier of useful intelligence.
03 / SOUL · IP NOURISHES THE SOULCapability earns attention.
Capability earns attention.
Soul earns preference.
We help founders build original IP, product behavior and brand as one system—so a capable machine becomes recognizable, chosen and able to expand.
One recognizable world. Six distinct characters.
- 01
Ownable
Original characters, stories and design codes that belong to the company.
- 02
Preferred
A reason for customers to choose beyond features and price.
- 03
Extensible
One identity that can travel across products, media and markets.
✦Ideas from the team
Notes from the edge
of the living world.
Practical perspectives on the intelligence, industrial systems and cultural imagination required to build enduring Physical AI companies.
Prof. Tony F. ChanFounding PartnerWhy Physical AI will be built between the laboratory and the factory floor.
The next generation of intelligence will not be judged only by benchmarks. It must perceive, decide and perform reliably inside an unpredictable world.
RESEARCH NOTE · 6 MIN READTony ChenFounding & Managing PartnerThe supply chain is not a service provider. It is part of the founding team.
Great hardware companies treat manufacturing intelligence as product intelligence—from the first architecture decision through global scale.
OPERATOR NOTE · 7 MIN READJayesh ChhatlaniManaging PartnerFrom useful machine to cultural icon: why intelligence needs a soul.
Capability earns attention. Character, story and emotional coherence turn a product into something people choose to keep in their lives.
DESIGN NOTE · 5 MIN READBuilding something
intelligence can inhabit?
We want to meet the teams turning difficult technology into an inevitable product.
founders@vcsparks.com ↗One platform.
Three ways to participate.
Tailor exposure across venture upside, resilient growth and paths to liquidity.
partners@vcsparks.com ↗✦Start a conversation