Bison Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on frontier technologies, announced the closing of its $160 million Fund 2 to support founders developing artificial intelligence and other breakthrough technologies for the physical world.
The new fund follows Bison Ventures’ $135 million debut fund and will continue investing in companies from pre-seed through Series B. The firm is concentrating on what it calls Real World Intelligence, a category encompassing the application of AI to physical systems, including manufacturing, healthcare, energy, robotics, infrastructure, and advanced computing.
Founded in 2021 by Tom Biegala and Ben Hemani, Bison Ventures believes Real World Intelligence represents a $50 trillion market opportunity across the global economy. Its investment thesis centers on the expectation that AI’s next major wave of innovation will extend beyond digital applications into industries responsible for producing goods, developing medicines, generating energy, and maintaining essential infrastructure.
The firm’s investment team combines venture capital and engineering expertise across robotics, semiconductor manufacturing, biology, materials science, energy, and infrastructure. This technical background helps Bison identify emerging technologies and support founders developing solutions in complex scientific and industrial markets.
Bison’s existing portfolio illustrates the range of technologies underpinning its strategy. Zyphra is developing frontier AI models and infrastructure using AMD’s full-stack computing platform, while Cobot has deployed collaborative robots across healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics. Cobot’s robots have accumulated more than 12,600 production hours and moved more than 40 million pounds of material.
Other portfolio developments include Vivodyne’s launch of what it describes as the world’s largest human biological datacenter and Thinking Machines’ release of its first open-weights model, alongside a gigawatt-scale partnership with NVIDIA.
Bison is also reporting progress among companies receiving investments through Fund 2. Grid Aero has developed a full-scale autonomous cargo aircraft, while Great Sky is commercializing superconducting research through chips designed to deliver computing efficiency improvements of up to one million times compared with traditional GPUs. Inner Logic has demonstrated that surgical AI trained entirely through simulation can transfer to actual patient anatomy, following success in autonomous gallbladder removal.
The new fund reinforces Bison’s focus on companies capable of delivering substantial technological improvements rather than incremental advances. Its investment strategy emphasizes opportunities where breakthroughs in AI, computing, materials, and automation can reshape established industries and create entirely new markets.
With Fund 2, Bison Ventures is positioning itself to capitalize on the growing convergence of AI and physical infrastructure, particularly as advances in computing and autonomous systems create new opportunities across industrial and scientific applications.
“We are still early in unlocking the full value of AI to help us build a better future in the physical world. There will be a rapid acceleration in the use of AI to transform how we manufacture affordable goods, develop effective drugs, and produce sustainable energy, all driving better outcomes for people and the planet. We saw this inflection point proved out in Fund 1’s thesis, and we’re already deploying Fund 2 to back the next generation of deeply technical founders creating entirely new categories in massive, well-defined markets.”
Ben Hemani, Founding Partner At Bison Ventures
“Five years ago, we started Bison to back the companies that may appear contrarian today but will look inevitable in hindsight. A new technology has to change value created by an order of magnitude, and when it does, it’s incredibly hard to displace. Our success in Fund 1 has only reinforced our conviction in backing these step-change solutions.”
Tom Biegala, Founding Partner At Bison Ventures
