OpenAI’s Startup fund just raised a $10 million SPV from two unnamed investors

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  • The OpenAI Startup Fund is a separate but related entity from OpenAI.
  • The fund raised $175 million last year to invest in AI companies. 
  • It has since co-led investments in legal tech startup Harvey and Ambience Healthcare, among others. 

OpenAI’s venture capital fund recently raised $10 million from two unnamed investors via a special purpose vehicle or SPV, according to an SEC filing.

The OpenAI Startup Fund, which is related to OpenAI though technically a separate entity, raised $175 million last May to “help AI companies have a profound, positive impact on the world.” Since then, the fund has co-led a $80 million investment in legal tech startup Harvey and was part of a $70 million investment in Ambience Healthcare, among other deals.

OpenAI Startup Fund SPV I, LP made the SEC filing on Feb. 2 and raised the $10 million on Jan. 30. The disclosure mentions Ian Hathaway, a partner at the company’s VC fund, and Bobby Wu, a corporate lawyer at OpenAI.

An SPV is a financial structure that allows a group of investors to pool their funds for a single, one-off investment. They can be raised more quickly than a traditional VC fund and can be marketed to a wider range of non-institutional investors.

It’s unclear what the $10 million is for or why the OpenAI Startup Fund chose to create an SPV just eight months after raising $175 million for its main fund. OpenAI and the Startup Fund did not respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.

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