AIX Ventures’ second fund of $202M will fuel AI and the future of work
February 13, 2024
Written by the AIX Ventures Team
Two years ago, we launched AIX Ventures as a new kind of venture firm — one founded by some of the world’s top AI practitioners who work closely with an experienced investing team to provide entrepreneurs with deep company-building and AI expertise. We believe firmly that we need to be in AI day-to-day to understand our founders’ challenges and the technology they’re building. AI is simply moving too fast to be on the peripheral.
Today, we’re thrilled to announce our second fund of $202M to invest in early-stage AI companies. Fund II will enable us to lead more rounds and grow our Investing team. We’ll continue to partner with companies and founders who are using AI to transform how people and teams innovate, collaborate, and thrive in the workplace and beyond. With this fund, we’re particularly interested in AI applications and infrastructure that will shape the future of work for people in every field.
In our lifetimes, we’ll see AI disrupt every industry globally, from the workplace to healthcare, biotech to climate. But we’re just getting started. The companies being founded today and those coming tomorrow will need a strong network to help navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead. We believe AI can and should be a force for good. We see a world in which humans and machines will co-exist to create positive change in the world, and we’re building a deep community of top AI practitioners and aspiring founders who share our vision. From the initial idea to building an enduring company, we’re with our founders every step of the way — and for the long term.
Our current portfolio includes some of the most exciting names in AI today: HuggingFace, You.com, Weights & Biases, Perplexity, and Chroma, to name a few. With this larger fund, we can’t wait to empower more founders, the advancement of AI, and the future of work we’ll build together. Thank you to all of our founders, investors, and family members for your support.
Best,
The AIX Ventures Team
Introducing AIX Ventures
March 23, 2022
Written By Richard Socher
In March of 2013, during my doctoral work at Stanford, I received a summer internship application from a high school student, Tanay Tandon. Although Tanay had little experience, his curiosity was off the charts. That summer he built a neural net to count red and white blood cells, dramatically reducing the cost of what was an expensive test at the time. This was the beginning of his company, Athelas, of which I am an early investor and which recently announced its unicorn financing.
My journey from Stanford to Metamind CEO to Salesforce Chief Scientist to now founding you.com has included many amazing entrepreneurs along the way. And I have been humbled to be an early investor in many AI-focused companies such as Weights & Biases, HuggingFace, and Ping, to name a few. I have also enjoyed co-investing with some of my favorite AI counterparts.
Last January I was reflecting on the importance of AI — part of the fourth industrial revolution — and how we are just getting started. It is clear that machines are still just beginning to learn and the next few decades are going to be an exciting time for AI and humanity. There is going to be generation after generation of AI entrepreneurs who fundamentally rethink our approach and enable step changes in the technology. These entrepreneurs are going to need a strong AI community to help them achieve the best outcomes.
That’s why today we are launching AIX Ventures, a new AI-focused venture firm made up of some of the world’s top AI practitioners. Our $50M Fund I is focused on PreSeed and Seed startups. Fund I Investing Partners include Pieter Abbeel, Anthony Goldbloom, Chris Manning, and myself. At AIX we believe top AI practitioners need to be practicing AI, so we have an amazing full-time team led by my co-founder Shaun Johnson, previously VP of Engineering, Product, and Design at Lilt. The AIX team also includes General Partner Fang Yuan, formerly of Baidu Ventures where she led BV’s investment in Covariant. We are honored to be backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Foundation Capital, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Village Global, Vintage IP, and many amazing AI practitioners and investors. Thank you everyone for your trust.
Best Wishes,
Richard