The OpenAI Startup Fund, the early-stage AI investor affiliated with OpenAI, these days disclosed in a economic submitting that it has raised over $forty four million for its 5th Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) — its largest thus far.
Launched in 2021, the Fund has an unusual structure. It uses OpenAI’s name, however says OpenAI isn’t an investor. Originally legally controlled by way of OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman, it has raised money from out of doors LPs, inclusive of Microsoft, a massive OpenAI backer, and “other OpenAI companions,” in line with its website. Altman gave up criminal manage to general companion Ian Hathaway earlier this yr.
VCs commonly use SPVs to pool money from investors and invest out of doors their important fund. However, the fund is staying quiet about precisely what those price range are for.
A spokesman from OpenAI told TechCrunch that this SPV “might be used to guide a number of present portfolio companies and to make new investments.”
“SPVs allow us to allocate capital to high-capability investments opportunistically.”
The fund, founded in 2021, has been on a real SPV streak this 12 months, disclosing five separate cars that now total $114.2 million:
- SPV I, January 2024: $10,000,000
- SPV II, April 2024: $24,999,947 (first disclosed as $15m, later amended)
- SPV III, May 2024: $five,000,000 (as blanketed by way of TechCrunch)
- SPV IV, July 2024: $29,916,411
- SPV V, Dec 2024: $forty four,281,693
Despite the flurry of pastime, its internet site is sparse, with its maximum recent news posted a year in the past. The internet site discloses only some of its investments, like prison AI startup Harvey and AI be aware taking app Mem.
However, the fund is more active than its internet site indicates. Notable investments this 12 months encompass encompass Thrive Health, an AI health challenge between Sam Altman and Ariana Huffington, and heat outbound startup Unify.
The fund is likewise a seed investor in Anysphere, that is currently in the middle of a VC bidding war way to its AI code assistant Cursor.
These SPVs are all on top of the Fund’s original capital of $one hundred seventy five.25m, which changed into raised again in October 2021.