Inside the Autonomous Economy Venture Capital Firm Untapped Ventures: Our 2026 AGM Recap
- George Bandarian
- Mar 23
- 7 min read
Untapped Ventures hosted its 2026 Annual General Meeting on March 7th, bringing together a growing community of LPs and founders to mark the transition from AI to the Autonomous Economy and the opportunities ahead.
Owning the Autonomous Economy: How an Autonomous Economy Venture Capital Firm Thinks About the Next Wave
This year’s AGM, held at the Portofino Hotel & Marina in Los Angeles, brought together nearly 100 LPs, founders, and partners for a deep dive into where AI is going next - and how we’re positioning around it.
What emerged from the day wasn’t just an update.
It was a clear shift.
For the last few years, the conversation has been about AI - models, copilots, and tools.
Now, it’s about something bigger.
The Autonomous Economy.
From AI-Native to AE-Native
At this year’s AGM, we introduced the evolution of our thesis:
We’re no longer just investing in AI-native startups.
We’re investing in AE-native companies.
The Autonomous Economy (AE) is the next phase of this technological cycle - where agents and robots don’t just assist humans, but execute work end-to-end and transact within defined systems.
This changes everything.
We’re moving from:
Software as a tool → software as labor
Human workflows → autonomous pipelines
Headcount-constrained businesses → compute-scaled organizations
And with that shift comes an entirely new stack.
One where orchestration, permissions, auditability, and coordination - the control plane of autonomy - become as critical as the models themselves.
This is where we’re focused.
Fund I: Proving the Engine
Before looking ahead, we grounded the conversation in what’s already working.
Fund I has now:
Invested in 35 companies, including 20 follow-on investments
Built exposure across agentic systems, compute, models, and applied AI
Backed early breakout candidates including Harper, Extropic, and Lemurian Labs
We’ve seen firsthand that venture outcomes still follow a power law - but in AI, that curve is compressing.
Companies are scaling faster. Markets are forming earlier. And the winners are emerging sooner.
The takeaway is simple:
This isn’t luck. It’s an engine.
Our sourcing flywheel, founder selection, and hands-on support - particularly around GTM - have created a repeatable system for identifying and backing top-tier AI founders early.
The Next Wave: Where Value Will Accrue
A major focus of the AGM was answering a question we hear often:
If AI was the first wave… where does value accrue next?
Our view is that the biggest opportunities sit across four layers of the AE stack:
Autonomy Control Plane Identity, permissions, policy, auditability, and governance systems for agents
Autonomous Workforce Layer Task routing, orchestration, marketplaces, and coordination across agents and robots
Autonomous Applications Industry-specific systems replacing human workflows end-to-end
Enabling Infrastructure Models, compute, robotics, and data systems powering everything above
Most investors are still focused on models or surface-level applications.
We believe the real opportunity is in the systems that make autonomy deployable, reliable, and economically viable.
Founder Panels: The Future in Production
The highlight of the AGM was once again hearing directly from our founders - this year organized under the Autonomous Economy lens.
These weren’t theoretical conversations. They were real operators, building and shipping.
Agentic Systems Panel
left to right: George Bandarian of Untapped Ventures moderating, Philipp Wehn of Nexxa AI, Sarah Tang of Sluicebox, and Kasim Abdullah of Harper,
Founders from Harper, Nexxa, and Sluicebox shared how agents are already moving beyond demos into production systems with real ROI.
Kasim Abdullahi (Head of GTM, Harper), Philipp Wehn (Co-founder & CEO, Nexxa), and Sarah Tang (Founder & President, Sluicebox) discussed what it actually takes to deploy agentic systems in the real world.
Key themes included the shift from copilots to fully autonomous workflows, the importance of deep domain expertise, and the emergence of agent-driven service delivery models.
Harper, for example, is building an autonomous insurance brokerage - replacing entire workflows, not just augmenting them.
Compute Panel
left to right: George Bandarian of Untapped Ventures moderating, Hayk Tepanyan of BlueQubit, and Guillaume Verdon of Extropic
If autonomy is the future, compute is the bottleneck.
Guillaume Verdon (Founder & CEO, Extropic) and Hayk Tepanyan (Co-founder & CTO, BlueQubit) explored the next generation of compute - from thermodynamic systems to quantum advantage.
The discussion focused on new paradigms beyond traditional GPUs, the physical limits of current infrastructure, and how breakthroughs in compute will unlock entirely new categories of AI applications.
The consensus: Compute is destiny - and the next breakthroughs will reshape the entire AI stack.
Convergence Panel
left to right: George Bandarian of Untapped Ventures moderating, Andrew Singletary of 3Laws Robotics, and Mathias Lechner of Liquid AI
This panel highlighted a major shift:
Mathias Lechner (Co-founder & CTO, Liquid AI) and Andrew Singletary (Co-founder & CEO, 3Laws Robotics) discussed the move toward efficient, on-device intelligence, the convergence of AI and robotics, and the growing importance of safety and control layers as autonomy scales.
We’re moving from “chatbots” to systems that act in the real world.
Longevity Panel
One of the most exciting applications of the Autonomous Economy is in health and longevity.
Bruno Balen (Founder, ANI), Jeff Chen (Co-founder & CEO, Radicle Science), and Michael Andregg (Founder, EON Systems) explored how AI is enabling earlier detection, personalized interventions, and entirely new approaches to understanding human biology.
From cardiometabolic health to large-scale clinical validation and even mind uploading, the panel offered a glimpse into a future where disease can be detected - and potentially prevented - decades earlier.
This category is still early - but the impact could be massive.
Community as a Competitive Advantage
“There’s nothing else like this.”
At Untapped, community isn’t a side benefit - it’s part of how we operate. Our AGM reflects that. It’s not just a presentation - it’s a working session between investors, founders, and operators, and that same dynamic carries throughout the year.
With nearly 100 LPs - many of them experienced founders and executives - our network becomes an extension of each company we back. What truly sets us apart, though, is how hands-on we are.
We don’t just provide capital - we work closely with founders throughout their journey, partnering with them as they build, iterate, and scale.
In many cases, we’re in the trenches alongside founders - helping turn early momentum into real outcomes, and building a community that actively contributes to each company’s success.
What Happens Next
If 2024–2025 was about AI adoption…
2026 and beyond is about autonomy.
Agents and robots will increasingly:
Execute workflows
Coordinate systems
Transact economically
The question is no longer if this happens.
It’s:
Who will build - and who will own - the infrastructure behind it?
Join Us
The 2026 AGM reinforced our conviction:
We are still early.
At Untapped Ventures, we’re focused on backing the founders building the Autonomous Economy - and continuing to partner closely with our community as this next wave unfolds.
If you’re a founder building in AE, we’d love to connect.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Autonomous Economy?
The Autonomous Economy is the next phase of the AI cycle, where agents and robots don't just assist humans but execute work end-to-end and transact within defined systems. It represents a shift from software as a tool to software as labor, and from headcount-constrained businesses to compute-scaled organizations.
What is the difference between AI-native and AE-native startups?
AI-native startups use AI to enhance existing human workflows, while AE-native (Autonomous Economy native) startups build systems where agents execute entire workflows end-to-end without a human in the loop. Untapped Ventures shifted its thesis at its 2026 AGM to focus specifically on AE-native companies rather than AI-native ones..
What are the four layers of the Autonomous Economy stack?
The four layers are the Autonomy Control Plane (identity, permissions, policy, and governance for agents), the Autonomous Workforce Layer (task routing and coordination across agents and robots), Autonomous Applications (industry-specific systems replacing human workflows), and Enabling Infrastructure (models, compute, robotics, and data systems underlying everything above).
How many companies has Untapped Ventures invested in?
Untapped Ventures' Fund I has invested in 35 companies, including 20 follow-on investments, with exposure across agentic systems, compute, models, and applied AI. Early breakout candidates from the fund include Harper, Extropic, and Lemurian Labs.
Where does Untapped Ventures believe the next wave of AI value will accrue?
Untapped Ventures believes the biggest opportunity lies in the systems that make autonomy deployable, reliable, and economically viable, rather than in foundation models or surface-level applications, where most investors remain focused. This includes the control plane, workforce orchestration layer, and autonomous applications built on top of enabling infrastructure.
What companies presented at Untapped Ventures' 2026 AGM?
Founders from Harper, Nexxa, Sluicebox, Extropic, BlueQubit, Liquid AI, 3Laws Robotics, ANI, Radicle Science, and EON Systems presented across panels covering agentic systems, compute, AI-robotics convergence, and longevity. The event was held March 7th, 2026 at the Portofino Hotel & Marina in Los Angeles.
What makes Untapped Ventures' community approach different from other VC firms?
Untapped Ventures' nearly 100 LPs, many of them experienced founders and executives, function as an active network extension for each portfolio company, rather than passive capital. The firm describes itself as hands-on, working closely with founders throughout their journey rather than providing capital alone.
Who is Untapped Ventures and what do they invest in?
Untapped Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in Autonomous Economy startups, particularly those building the Autonomy Control Plane and Machine Workforce layers of infrastructure. Fund I deploys $500K to $2M+ checks into pre-seed and seed-stage technical founders building systems with no existing market map.
What does Untapped Ventures look for in startups?
Untapped Ventures looks for founders building categories that don't yet exist on market maps from firms like CB Insights or PitchBook, evaluated using an "Autonomy Density Score" measuring how much of a workflow runs without human intervention. Priority areas include agent identity and PKI, policy-as-code engines, and machine workforce management platforms.
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