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Finance · updated 38m ago · 3 min read
Bain Capital Ventures Closes $1.6 Billion Fund XI To Back Early-Stage AI Startups
Bain Capital Ventures closes Fund XI at $1.6 billion, above target. Fund XI backs early-stage AI, infrastructure, security and related tech.
Whether AGI has already arrived.
7 of 8 outlets skipped it: BCV aims to fund compute until intelligence is too cheap to meter.
“BCV believes artificial general intelligence (AGI), which it defines as agents performing many tasks as well as humans can, has already arrived”
“Founders Building for an Abundant Post-AGI World”
TechCrunchtreats AGI as already here, whileBusiness Wireuses a post-AGI theme, without claiming AGI has arrived.
Bain’s $1.6B AI fund
Bain Capital Ventures closed its 11th venture fund, Fund XI, with $1.6 billion in capital, exceeding its target as it increases backing of early-stage companies focused on AI infrastructure, physical AI, security, healthcare and AI-enabled services.
“Bain Capital Ventures (BCV) closed its 11th fund at $1.6 billion”
Benzinga
The fund is described as 14% larger than Bain’s $1.4 billion predecessor, and Bain said more than 82% of the capital deployed from its previous fund went into pre-seed, seed, Series A or Series B investments.
Bain Capital Ventures said it plans to invest in roughly 30 to 40 companies, primarily at the seed through Series B stages, while positioning the broader Bain Capital platform to provide additional resources beyond venture equity.
In its portfolio, the firm has backed infrastructure companies such as Crusoe and Poolside, applied AI companies including Cognition, Decagon and Legora, and physical AI startups Atoms and Sunday Robotics.
Bain Capital Ventures also lists AI services investments including Crosby Legal and Norm as part of the areas Fund XI will continue to target.
Enrique Salem’s pitch
Bain Capital Ventures co-managing partner Enrique Salem framed the strategy around AI’s transformation and the firm’s decade-long approach, saying, “AI will transform our world in ways we’ve only begun to experience and we’ve been investing against that idea for the past decade.”
Salem added that BCV will keep its team focused on early-stage founders, telling investors, “We continue to focus our entire team on finding and actively supporting the most ambitious founders with our deep connectivity to the real economy.”
The fund’s early-stage emphasis is tied to how Bain Capital Ventures deployed capital from Fund X, where more than 82% of invested dollars went into Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A or Series B financings.
Bain Capital Ventures said Fund XI will concentrate on areas including AI infrastructure, AI applications, physical AI, science, cybersecurity and AI-enabled services, extending the firm’s emphasis on investing at the earliest stages of company formation.
Bain Capital Ventures also positioned Fund XI as part of Bain Capital’s broader $225 billion investment platform, describing it as a way to connect startups with debt financing, infrastructure relationships, operational resources and connections across sectors of the physical economy.
How BCV will deploy
Bain Capital Ventures partner Kevin Zhang said the firm defines artificial general intelligence as agents performing many tasks as well as humans, and he described a goal to fund compute infrastructure until intelligence becomes “too cheap to meter.”
“until intelligence becomes “too cheap to meter,””
TechCrunch
TechCrunch reported that BCV intends to invest in 30 to 40 companies primarily at the seed through Series B stages, and it said partners often team up in pairs or trios rather than leaving a single partner to champion every deal.T
The fund’s themes, as described by TechCrunch, include infrastructure, healthcare, physical AI and security, with Zhang pointing to Crusoe as a portfolio example tied to compute infrastructure.T
TechCrunch also said BCV wants to focus on healthcare because it believes the sector may be transformed by AI, and it cited investments including Loyal, a longevity startup aimed at pets, and Dream, an AI-powered defender of national infrastructure.T
In addition to its stated focus on AI infrastructure and physical AI, Bain Capital Ventures said it will use the larger Bain Capital organization to support portfolio companies with resources beyond equity investment, including access to debt financing, infrastructure partnerships and relationships with businesses across Bain Capital’s portfolio.
