The OpenAI Startup Fund, a venture capital fund related to – but technically separate from – OpenAI that invests in early-stage companies, typically AI-related in the areas of education, law and sciences, quietly closed a $15 million tranche.
According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, two anonymous investors brought in $15 million in new cash on or about April 19. The documents were submitted on April 25 and list Ian Hathaway, the manager and sole partner of the OpenAI Startup Fund.
The capital was transferred to a legal entity called a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, associated with the OpenAI Startup Fund: OpenAI Startup Fund SPV II, LP.
SPVs allow multiple investors to pool their resources and invest in a single company or fund. In the venture capital industry, they are sometimes used to invest in startups that don’t fit a fund’s strategy or don’t meet a fund’s terms. SPVs can also be marketed to a wider range of non-institutional investors.
This is the second time the OpenAI Startup Fund has raised capital via an SPV – the first time in February for a tranche of $10 million.
The OpenAI Startup Fund, whose portfolio companies include legal tech startup Harvey, Ambiance Healthcare and humanoid robotics company Figure AI, came under scrutiny last year after it was revealed that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had legally controlled the fund for a long time. Although marketed as a standard corporate venture capital arm, Altman raised capital for the OpenAI seed fund from external limited partners, including Microsoft (a close partner and investor of OpenAI), and had the final word on the fund’s investments.
Neither OpenAI nor Altman had – or has – any financial interest in the OpenAI Startup Fund. But critics nevertheless argued that Altman’s ownership amounted to a conflict of interest; OpenAI claimed that the general partnership structure was intended to be “temporary.”
In April, Altman transferred formal control of the OpenAI Startup Fund to Hathaway, previously an investor with venture capital firm Haystack, which had played a key role in managing the Startup Fund since 2021.
Last year, the OpenAI Startup Fund – whose plans also include an incubator program called Converge – had $175 million in commitments and held $325 million in gross net asset value. He backs more than a dozen startups, including Descript, a collaborative media publishing platform valued at $553 million last year; language learning app Parler; Mem AI-powered note-taking app; and the Anysphere IDE platform.
OpenAI had not responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment at the time of publication. We will update this post if we receive a response.
techcrunch
