Base10 Partners raised $850 million across two new funds to back companies using artificial intelligence to modernize financial services, healthcare, logistics, transportation and other industries. That’s nearly double the venture firm’s previous fund, which closed at $443 million in 2023.
The new raise includes an early stage fund for seed- and Series A investments and a separate vehicle targeting Series B-stage deals. Belgian family investment group Sofina and California public pension fund giant CalPERS backed the funds, alongside sovereign wealth funds, endowments and other institutional investors.
“The automation of the real economy is here,” said Base10’s Adeyemi Ajao. “Those companies are where the new capital is going to go.”
The Black-led venture firm also reaffirmed its Advancement Initiative, which commits up to half the firm’s carried interest to support scholarships for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and to shore up HBCU endowments. Base10 is expanding the initiative to include on-campus training, internships and job placement programs for HBCU students.
Real economy
Since it was founded in 2018, San Francisco-based Base10 has backed more than 200 companies modernizing workflows.
Among its portfolio companies are Nubank, Latin America’s largest digital bank, Brex, a corporate credit card and expense management provider, Waterplan, a startup that helps companies measure and address water risk, and August Health, which makes software for caregivers aimed at improving care and simplifying compliance. The firm led last year’s $44 million Series B financing for logistics software company HappyRobot.
Although it does not label itself an impact investor, Base10 incorporates ESG, diversity, climate and responsible AI considerations into its governance model designed for early stage startups.
“When we raised Fund I [in 2018] we called ourselves the first fund focused on Applied AI for the Real Economy, and LPs told us applied AI was too ‘niche’ and ‘not a thing’, so we had to change it to automation,” said Ajao. “Today, we have several portfolio companies applying AI to the real economy that are growing from zero to tens of millions in revenue in under 12 months—that is unprecedented.”
