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Jai Malik
General Partner at Countdown Capital
Jai Malik, General Partner at Countdown Capital
Jai Malik** is the founder and solo General Partner at **Countdown Capital:, where he invests in the intersection of hard problems, hard technology, and hard industries.123
Jai began his career in hard tech as the first hire at Accrete (raised $25M to date), where he helped the company successfully launch its first two products for defense and commercial customers. Thereafter, he was an early hire at dual-use startup Forge AI (acquired by FiscalNote), where he led product management for data products.13
Wanting to further support founders, Jai then transitioned to venture capital at Rocana Ventures and worked on foodtech and manufacturing investments for two years before closing Countdown's first fund in 2021.13 As founder and general partner of Countdown Capital, Malik manages more than $20 million in assets under management, focusing on investing in founders building hard and capital-intensive projects.2
However, in January 2024, Jai announced that Countdown Capital will shut down by March-end amid the funding winter. He decided to close the fund as "funding industrial startups is not inefficient enough to justify our existence" and "larger, multi-stage venture firms are best positioned to generate strong returns on the most valuable industrial startups".4
Jai holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Business and Political Economy, and Philosophy from NYU Stern School of Business.5 He is based in Los Angeles and has over 500 connections on LinkedIn.5
