With an office on Park Avenue in downtown Winter Park, Parkway Venture Capital is more than an investment firm. It is a partner to some of the most successful and ambitious technology companies in the world, from humanoid robotics to fusion energy. Co-founded in 2019 by Gregg Hill and Jesse Coors-Blankenship, the firm is headquartered in New York and built on concentrated, high-conviction investments and hands-on support for the founders it backs.
That approach has quickly earned Parkway global recognition in only seven years; the firm was recently named the No.1 emerging venture capital firm in the United States and placed in the top 20 of all U.S. venture firms. Not a single Florida-based firm appears in the overall top 100, making Parkway’s presence a notable addition to Central Florida’s business community.
A Top-Ranked Firm With Local Roots
In the 2026 Venture Ranking, compiled by Stanford finance professor Ilya Strebulaev, Parkway placed first among all U.S. emerging venture firms, defined as those founded in 2016 or later. With 3,221 points, Parkway finished ahead of well-known firms including Factorial Funds, Future Ventures, Paradigm, Craft Ventures, and Bedrock.
Among all U.S. firms, it landed in the top 20, ahead of many firms that have been investing for three decades or more. Parkway believes its rise into the top tier of U.S. venture firms may be the fastest of any firm in the past 50-plus years.
Parkway credits the recognition to the founders it backs, led by Figure AI, Hark, SandboxAQ, TAE, Pascal, and xAI (now merged with SpaceX), as well as the investors, friends, and partners who “trusted a young firm with super high conviction.”
In just a few years, Figure AI, founded in 2022, has become one of the world’s six most valuable private AI companies, valued at over $39 billion after its Series C, which Parkway VC led.
This year has been a milestone for the portfolio, with three Parkway companies having gone or going public, including SpaceX, quantum computing company Pasqal, and soon TAE Technologies.
The firm remains focused on concentrated, high-conviction investments and helping its companies win.
“No one sees that work,” said Hill. “You’re just invisible. You have this self-belief. And then all of a sudden, all eyes are on you.”
From Tennis Prodigy to Corporate Athlete
Behind Parkway is co-founder Gregg Hill, whose path to venture capital began on a tennis court. Raised in a small town in North Carolina by his parents, Hill says he was a naturally competitive child. His father was a high school basketball star, and his mother was a cheerleader, but neither had ever played tennis. When his mother signed him up for a lesson at the local courts, Hill knew right away that he had found his sport.
“It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost like the sport picked me,” said Hill. From day one, he was obsessed.
By the age of eight and a half, Hill had convinced his parents to let him move to a small tennis academy eight hours from home. A year later, after he returned home, his parents surprised him with a birthday trip to the U.S. Open in New York. There, his mother approached famed coach Nick Bollettieri to ask for advice on her son’s tennis career. Weeks later, Hill was invited to audition at the Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, now IMG Academy, where coaches said he had some of the best hands they had ever seen.
At 10 years old, Hill officially moved to Florida to train full-time. Hill says he rose to become one of the best players in the country, and then the world. He played doubles at Wimbledon with Tommy Haas and appeared alongside Anna Kournikova in a 60 Minutes feature. He also modeled for sponsors including Adidas.
In his prime, Hill was struck by an impaired driver, and the accident ended his professional career. He returned to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, where he had competed before turning pro. In Los Angeles, he also met his future wife, Stephanie.
“No matter what, you have to figure out your post-career,” said Hill. “At some point, everyone has to deal with it. Mine was just earlier, and I think it was a good thing because that helped me make that transition into the corporate world.”
Today, Hill describes himself as a “corporate athlete,” bringing the same rituals, focus, and discipline from his tennis years into business.
Building Parkway
Hill’s business career began with helping grow kidney care company DaVita across 15 states. That success led him to join the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) at 31, where a fellow member introduced him to venture capital in Silicon Valley. He soon began investing and joining boards.
His partnership with Coors-Blankenship goes back 26 years, to when the two met at their apartment building pool in Los Angeles. While Coors-Blankenship was conducting research at Columbia University, Hill flew to New York, and the two partnered on an early artificial intelligence startup that automated the design of mechanical parts.
Founded in 2022, Figure AI has quickly become one of the world’s six most valuable privately held AI companies, according to Gregg Hill. He describes the company as a major early win in the artificial intelligence industry, with technology that has had a lasting impact. Hill estimates that 20% to 25% of the world’s parts are designed using the technology, a figure he believes could be even higher. He and Jesse Coors-Blankenship proudly stand behind the estimate as a reflection of the impact of their early work in AI.
Beginning with an earlier investment in Frustum, an AI-powered generative design company founded by Coors-Blankenship. Frustum’s technology was incorporated into leading CAD platforms, including PTC Creo and Siemens NX, helping engineers design components for industries such as automotive and aerospace. PTC acquired Frustum in 2018, marking a successful exit that helped pave the way for the launch of Parkway Venture Capital.
That experience convinced the pair that AI would transform every industry. Rather than launch another startup, they founded Parkway in 2019, starting with their own capital from the sale.
“We wanted to create a venture capital company that we felt like we were more like an extension of the co-founding team than venture capitalists,” said Hill.
Parkway focuses on what Hill calls “super deep tech with an AI focus, including humanoid robotics, fusion energy, and quantum. The firm was an early backer and largest preferred shareholder of Figure AI, the humanoid robotics company founded by Brett Adcock, and has invested in its funding rounds since.
Parkway’s very first investment was TAE Technologies, a fusion energy company that uses AI to help make fusion a reality. The firm is also an investor in SandboxAQ, the quantum technology company, which spun out of Alphabet under Jack Hidary, with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as chairman.”
“You first have to see the future, and then you make the future,” said Hill.
When it comes to deciding on an investment, Hill keeps it simple. “It’s either a hell yes or it’s a no,” said Hill. “Anything short of a hell yes never works out.”
Investing in Winter Park
Hill first came to Central Florida through his tennis connections. Dr. Jim Loehr, Hill’s former sports psychologist at the Bollettieri academy, started the Human Performance Institute in Lake Nona. Additionally, Grand Slam champion Jim Courier, who Hill grew up with at the academy, was living in Lake Nona.
The plan was always to eventually return to California or the Northeast, but between raising their two kids, Louden and Meta, and the pandemic, Winter Park became home.
“It was almost like I was meant to stay here,” said Hill. Through the YPO community, he says, “I found my tribe.”
Beyond venture capital, Hill has made his mark on the city through real estate. He redeveloped an aging property on Park Avenue into lock-and-leave townhomes called Park Hill Townhomes. Additionally, he developed the building that is home to Ford Fry’s Superica, and assembled 12 lots in Oviedo for a center topped with a clock tower inspired by Back to the Future. Parkway’s Winter Park office sits upstairs in a historic Park Avenue building next to the Briar Patch, which Hill purchased from a family that had owned it for about 70 years.
“There are some things that just needed to be redeveloped and some things you don’t need to touch,” said Hill. “I’m not going to mess with the history.”
His wife, Stehanie, is also active in the community, serving on the Winter Park library board and the board of the Winter Park Institute, which brings speakers with a range of backgrounds and viewpoints to the city.
With venture capital largely concentrated in New York and Northern California, Hill believes Parkway’s local presence can give Central Florida founders exposure that once required moving to Palo Alto.
“If it’s not around you and you’re not even exposed to it, it’s not just going to fall in your lap,” said Hill.
Family, Balance, and What’s Next
Despite working long hours and traveling to New York, Hill makes family a priority. From answering a phone call from his wife during our interview to taking late-night flights home so he can drive his kids to school the next morning. Having spent his own childhood at a tennis academy with tutors instead of high school, he says watching his children experience school dances and everyday moments is like reliving what could’ve been his own childhood.
Hill also stays connected to the sport that started it all. Last year, he hosted a YPO event at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, bringing in his former doubles partner Tommy Haas for stories and an exhibition match.
When asked whether he ever gets nervous, Hill was candid. “Anyone who says they don’t get nervous is not telling the truth,” said Hill. He credits his confidence to tennis, a sport where “you usually lose more than you win.”
“I’ve taken hits, I’ve taken licks, I’ve responded to it,” he said.
For Hill, his tennis career was only the first few chapters of a much longer story. “I didn’t want that to be the end of the story,” said Hill. “I didn’t know anything about venture capital. I didn’t even know that was a thing.”
Above all, his perspective is grounded in effort and purpose, with one of his guiding beliefs being “Give it my all, be the best version of myself, and see where the road takes us.”
It’s a philosophy that defines not only Hill’s career but the firm he has built, one rooted in conviction, connection, and a belief in what the future can hold.
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