Hisham Haddad
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
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- Full Name
- Hisham Elhaddad
- Title
- Co-Founder & Managing Partner
- Firm
- HOF Capital
- Firm Type
- Multi-stage venture capital firm (the stub's "Angel Investors" label is inaccurate)
- Investment Stage
- Seed and Series A (firm also participates in growth/late-stage rounds)
- Check Size
- ~$500K–$2M, with a ~$1M sweet spot (per Signal/NFX profile)
- Target Company Profile
- Frontier-technology startups commercializing deep, capital-intensive innovation
- Sector Focus
- AI / machine learning, deep tech, enterprise software, and IoT
- Geographic Focus
- New York City–based, investing globally
- Location
- New York, NY
Background
Hisham Elhaddad is a co-founder and Managing Partner of HOF Capital, a New York City–based global venture capital firm founded in 2016 (alongside co-founders including Onsi Sawiris and Fady Yacoub). He leads the firm's overall direction, capital formation, and investment strategy, and is credited with scaling HOF from inception to a reported $10B+ in assets under management (third-party databases such as FINTRX put the figure nearer $7.3B and Deep Tech Week around $5B). HOF has built its LP base by cultivating relationships with major family offices and institutions worldwide.
Elhaddad holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Boston University, where he is featured as part of the university's Digital Business Institute. He is fluent in English, German, and Arabic. Earlier in his career he worked as an Investment Associate at the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) before co-founding HOF.
At HOF, Elhaddad has led the firm's positions in a number of high-profile frontier-tech companies. He has also taken active governance roles in portfolio companies, serving as a board observer at GenLogs (a freight-intelligence platform) and as a board member at Codesphere (a developer/deployment software company). His investing focus centers on machine learning, deep tech, and enterprise software.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Stage: Concentrates on Seed and Series A, while the broader firm backs companies across stages up to growth/pre-IPO.
- Check size: Roughly $500K–$2M per deal, sweet spot ~$1M (third-party data).
- Sectors: AI / machine learning, deep tech and frontier technologies, enterprise software, and IoT.
- What he backs: Capital-intensive, transformative technologies — fusion energy, genomics, space, autonomy, AI infrastructure — frequently alongside marquee co-investors (e.g., rounds also backed by figures like Bill Gates, John Doerr, and Vinod Khosla).
- Stated focus: HOF describes him as "dedicated to advancing frontier technologies and accelerating commercialization across multiple sectors and investment stages."
Notable Investments
- Anthropic — AI foundation-model developer.
- xAI (x.ai) — Elon Musk's AI company.
- SpaceX — space launch and satellite company.
- Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) — fusion energy; participated in a large (~$860M Series B) round.
- Crusoe — AI/energy data-center infrastructure.
- Bugatti Rimac / Rimac Automobili — electric hypercars and EV technology.
- Databricks — data and AI analytics platform.
- Neuralink — brain–computer interfaces.
- BillionToOne — molecular diagnostics (Series C participation).
- Codesphere — developer/deployment software (Series A; Elhaddad served on the board).
- GenLogs — freight-intelligence platform (board observer role).
- Additional portfolio names cited across sources: OpenAI, UiPath, Varda, Colossal, Kraken, Insitro, 21Shares, and Republic.
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