Obvious Ventures, the investment firm co-founded by Twitter’s Evan Williams, has successfully closed its fifth funding round, continuing its tradition of distinctive fund sizes with a total of $360,360,360.
James Joaquin (pictured far right), the firm’s co-founder and managing director, explained to TechCrunch that their investments target “the frontiers of math and science and physics,” and they enjoy incorporating mathematical themes into their fund figures.
The firm’s initial fund was $123,456,789. The second fund, announced in 2017, totaled $191,919,191, a palindromic number. Their third fund, closed in early 2020, amounted to $271,828,182, which engineers and mathematicians recognize as ‘e’ (Euler’s number). The fourth fund, from mid-2022, maintained the pattern with another palindrome: $355,111,553.
Unlike its predecessors, the size of Obvious Ventures’ newest fund isn’t primarily a nod to abstract mathematics. Instead, the figure reflects the firm’s twelve-year investment philosophy, symbolizing a comprehensive, “full-circle” approach to its three core focus areas: planetary health, human health, and economic health.
Joaquin stated, “We appreciate the metaphor of adopting a 360-degree perspective in each of these domains. One must study the past to grasp what has succeeded and what has not.”
According to Joaquin, a key to the firm’s success is maintaining fund sizes compact enough that a single investment, if it matures into a resilient public company, could potentially return the entire fund. Joaquin likely emphasized “durability” because early success story Beyond Meat saw its market capitalization surge to over $14 billion after its 2019 IPO, only to decline to under a billion by late 2022.
Nevertheless, Joaquin affirmed that the firm has delivered significant cash distributions to its limited partners from all main funds and boasts several companies with successful public market entries. For example, Obvious Ventures invested in Planet Labs, a satellite imagery company, in 2015. It went public via a SPAC in 2021 and is currently valued at approximately $8.5 billion. Furthermore, its Series A investment in Recursion Pharmaceuticals maintains a market capitalization exceeding $2 billion.
Obvious also made an early investment in Gusto, the HR and payroll platform, which was most recently valued at over $9 billion in the private market and is widely anticipated to pursue an IPO.
In a venture capital landscape where only 17% of firms manage to raise more than three funds, as per Sapphire Partners’ research, Obvious Ventures’ latest fundraise solidifies its position as an established and prominent VC entity.
Joaquin commented, “Reaching fund five is, in fact, a significant milestone within the venture capital ecosystem.”
While Obvious Ventures employs a playful approach to its fund figures, its commitment to investing in startups that generate a positive impact on the world is deeply serious. Joaquin highlighted several investments aligned with the firm’s three pillars.
In the planetary health sector, the firm backed Zanskar, a startup leveraging proprietary data and AI to identify and harness geothermal energy, recognized as one of the most cost-effective power sources. Zanskar recently announced a $115 million Series C round. Obvious Ventures, which led the previous funding round, expressed particular enthusiasm for this investment, with Joaquin noting that Zanskar’s geothermal power could help supply energy to demanding AI data centers.
Under its human health strategy, Obvious Ventures showcased its investment in Inceptive, an AI platform dedicated to molecule development. Inceptive was founded by Jakob Uszkoreit, a principal author of the influential “Attention is All You Need” paper, which unveiled the transformer architecture central to generative AI.
For economic health, Joaquin pointed to Dexterity Robotics. This company, valued at $1.65 billion last year, develops humanoid robots to perform “dull, dirty, and dangerous” tasks currently handled by humans in industrial settings like warehouses and factories.
In addition to Joaquin, Obvious Ventures features four other active investors, including co-founder Vishal Vasishth, while Ev Williams remains a co-founder and advisor. The firm plans to make approximately 10 new investments annually, with check sizes ranging from $5 million to $12 million for Seed and Series A stage startups.