Ashton Kutcher is embarking on a new venture, departing from Sound Ventures — the successful firm he co-established with Guy Oseary 11 years ago — to launch an independent venture capital fund. This move, initially reported by The Wall Street Journal and corroborating earlier whispers from TechCrunch, reveals new details about his collaboration with Morgan Beller.
The actor and investor's forthcoming firm, whose name remains undisclosed, is being co-founded by Morgan Beller. Beller brings a wealth of experience, having recently served as a general partner at the seed-focused VC firm NFX, and notably co-led the cryptocurrency initiative Libra during her tenure at Meta. Her impressive career also includes nearly three years as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Kutcher's exit is not indicative of any underlying issues at Sound Ventures; typically, such departures are associated with underperforming firms, which is not the case here. Sound Ventures boasts a robust portfolio, having backed prominent companies like Brex and Gusto, and was an early investor in groundbreaking AI entities such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs.
This organizational split is particularly noteworthy for the strategic shift it signals within the AI investment landscape. While Sound Ventures has built its reputation on concentrated, high-conviction investments in leading AI laboratories, Kutcher's new fund appears poised to target the foundational layer beneath these innovations — specifically, the infrastructure and energy crucial for their operation and advancement.
Highlighting Kutcher's established prowess in the field, Stanford finance professor Ilya Strebulaev, a renowned tracker of top-performing VCs, commented on X: “He and his fund consistently make it onto [my] rankings of top unicorn investors. An interesting case!”
Kutcher's deep connections within the tech world are well-documented, including his long-standing relationship with OpenAI's Sam Altman, which dates back to Altman's founding of Loopt, years before the advent of the ChatGPT maker.
The decision for Kutcher to leave was partly driven by differing investment philosophies concerning startup stages. According to The Wall Street Journal, Sound Ventures tends to favor backing more established companies, whereas Kutcher is keen on pursuing earlier-stage opportunities.
Consequently, Kutcher and Beller's new endeavor will concentrate on early-stage investments in critical areas: AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech startups. This focus targets companies built upon significant hard science and engineering breakthroughs, rather than solely on software innovations.
Despite his departure, Kutcher will maintain an advisory role at Sound Ventures, ensuring continued collaboration. In a reciprocal arrangement, Guy Oseary and Sound general partner Effie Epstein will serve as advisors to Kutcher and Beller’s new firm, fostering an ongoing professional relationship between the entities.
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