A venture capital firm now deploying capital in the Los Angeles area plans to ramp up its capital deployment, and earlier this month injected $15 million into the electric vehicle “reproducer” Evolectric Inc. 

Beverly Hills-based Seismic Capital Company’s investment in the startup – which is developing an assembly line-retrofitting system that can convert a standard diesel engine into an electric-propulsion system in days – is Seismic’s second play. In June, the firm invested in the video game-advertiser Game Cloud Network Inc. 

This is the first investment outside of seed money for Evolectric, which was founded in Long Beach in 2019. In the same week Seismic’s commitment was announced, Evolectric moved its operations into a larger facility in Compton, signaling its shift towards scaling its technology. 

According to Seismic Capital’s president, Eric White, the warehouse had existing equipment for trucks and automobiles Evolectric employed immediately.  

“There’s about half a million dollars’ worth of equipment that they’re already putting to use,” White said. “There’s turnover right now for them to be able to use the facilities to convert these trucks.”

Evolectric is rolling out refurbished, electric truck fleets ahead of California mandates stating that at least 5% of trucks sold in the state must be emission-free next year. On top of that, the California Air Resources Board unanimously approved an ambitious timeline this past April for all big rigs and other trucks sold here to be zero-emission by 2036. 

Seismic invests in companies at their adolescence stage when their products are past development but capital for scaling deployment infrastructure is needed. Funding goes toward expense investments such as marketing, sales and human relations, as well as providing fixed assets such as building leases and equipment.

According to White, the $15 million covers at least two years and will get Evolectric’s administrative work up and running. 

While Seismic’s focus on commercializing companies mirrors the norm for the venture capital world, its investor profile looks quite different. The minimum capital commitment is $1,000, and verification the investor is over 18 years of age. 

Seismic Capital claims that it is the first firm allowing both accredited and non-accredited investors into the venture world outside of crowdfunding platforms. Venture capital has historically filled a gap in the capital market, fitting in where bankers can’t afford the risk and public market regulation asks for proof of assets that don’t yet exist.

Investing in an idea’s capitalization potential has propelled top firms to become some of the highest-returning entities in the world. Take the Sept. 19 initial public offering for Maplebear Inc., known as Instacart. The grocery delivery service was a darling of the venture capital world, receiving $2.9 billion in funding and debuting with an $11 billion valuation on the stock market.

But public investors have been shut out from these returns; family offices, hedge funds and university endowments are the main financiers in the space. 

Seismic says it has democratized the ground floor for investor involvement, opening up funds from the typical 100-investor count to thousands. Its lowest-denomination offering, registered with the SEC as a Regulation A sale, doles out the same type of equity shares the firm’s managers own.

Onboarding thousands of investors makes Seismic similar to a holding company infrastructure, but its exit timeline and startup focus calls for the kind of riskier bets that investors wish they could have made on the tech unicorns known today.

“Rich people can make money all the time, White said. “We want to be able to help individuals and their portfolios grow.”