Boost VC closes $87M fund — Adam Draper flew a jetpack and is doubling down on deep tech and bio

Summary

Boost VC has closed an $87 million fund, its latest vehicle in a thirteen-year run backing early-stage founders in deep tech and frontier science. Adam Draper frames the raise as a continuation of a strategy that has already rewarded LPs sufficiently to keep capital flowing, pointing to early bets on Coinbase and Gravity Industries as proof of concept.

Gravity Industries, a jetpack company Boost backed roughly seven years ago after Draper watched its founder fly in a San Mateo parking lot, has since grown into a multimillion-dollar business with three distinct revenue lines. The defense segment focuses on maritime boarding operations, enabling personnel to transfer between vessels rapidly. A media and experience division runs jetpack pilot training schools open to the public. A third line targets search-and-rescue and paramedic applications, particularly in mountainous terrain.

Draper describes the core technical breakthrough at Gravity as miniaturizing vertical takeoff and landing engines small enough to lift a single human with meaningful flight duration, something the market broadly doubted was achievable. He flew the system himself two days before the interview.

Biology is Draper's stated next conviction. Founders are pitching Boost on longevity extension, cancer cures, and genetic disease elimination, and he characterizes the shift from treatment to cure as the defining healthcare thesis of the current cycle. Boost is hosting a deep tech demo day on Wednesday, October 1st alongside the broader early-stage deep tech venture community, where several portfolio bio companies are expected to present.