Andrew Ng plans to raise $120M for next AI Fund

AI big shot Andrew Ng’s AI Fund, a startup incubator that backs small teams of experts looking to solve key problems using AI, plans to raise upward of $120 million for its second effort.

By Priya Khosla July 1, 2024

A filing with the SEC shows that the AI Fund’s second fund, AI Venture Fund II, has so far amassed $69.75 million from 13 partners — leaving around $50 million to be invested. The AI Fund’s PR declined to comment.

Ng launched the AI Fund in 2018 with $175 million, serving as the incubator’s GP and leading its direction. (On the aforementioned SEC filing, he’s named as the “managing member of the general partner” for AI Venture Fund II.) The idea was to provide funding at the seed and Series A stages of a company’s life cycle, allowing teams to work in relative stealth until they were ready — and connecting them with Ng’s extensive professional network.

Greylock Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia Capital and SoftBank Group were among the AI Fund’s initial backers. Crunchbase lists 38 portfolio companies, including AI observability platform WhyLabs, Ng’s own Landing AI, and AI app-building tool Baseten.

At $120 million, AI Venture Fund II would be considerably smaller than the first AI Fund vehicle. Still, it’s more than double what Ng reportedly originally hoped to raise — $50 million — for the AI Fund’s follow-up.

Source: TechCrunch. Read the full article here.