How Bain Capital Ventures plans to deploy its fresh $1.6B fund

Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), the task part of backstage equity steadfast Bain Capital, has raised a new, $1.6 cardinal fund, which is 14% larger than its erstwhile $1.4 cardinal fund the steadfast announced 3 years ago.

Like galore different task investors, BCV says it volition usage the caller funds to backmost startups chiefly focused connected AI. The steadfast believes artificial wide quality (AGI), which it defines arsenic agents performing galore tasks arsenic good arsenic humans can, has already arrived, and the adjacent question of startups volition not lone harness its power, but besides physique the infrastructure needed to marque it tally efficiently.

Some of the main themes that volition beryllium the astir applicable successful what the steadfast calls “the post-AGI era” see infrastructure, healthcare, carnal AI, and security, said spouse Kevin Zhang. 

He said BCV aims to money compute infrastructure until quality becomes “too inexpensive to meter,” meaning that the outgo of moving AI drops to astir zero. He pointed to 1 institution successful BCV’s portfolio that tin assistance with this mission: information halfway developer Crusoe, which is reportedly valued astatine $30 cardinal and viewed arsenic a near-term IPO candidate. BCV primitively led Crusoe’s Series A successful 2019, backmost erstwhile it focused connected crypto mining.

The steadfast wants to absorption connected healthcare due to the fact that it believes the assemblage whitethorn beryllium vastly transformed by AI. Security, meanwhile, has precocious go a substance of nationalist statement aft AI agents went rogue during training, and BCV believes there’s overmuch imaginable to stake connected successful this space. Some of the firm’s important investments successful these sectors see Loyal, a longevity startup aimed astatine pets, and Dream, an AI-powered defender of nationalist infrastructure.

BCV stands isolated from different VC firms, according to Zhang, acknowledgment to its affiliation with Bain Capital, which provides heavy expertise and fiscal products crossed credit, existent estate, insurance, and backstage equity. “BCV tin enactment founders not conscionable with equity capital, but with indebtedness facilities, infrastructure partnerships, and real-economy relationships,” helium said.

From the caller fund, the firm’s 11th, BCV intends to put successful 30 to 40 companies, chiefly astatine the effect done Series B stages.  Unlike astir VC firms wherever a azygous spouse champions a deal, BCV’s partners often squad up successful pairs oregon trios to backmost a circumstantial investment, Zhang said.

“We request to person capable caput abstraction and clip to truly beryllium thoughtful partners to each squad we enactment with,” helium said.