WSJ – Boldstart Ventures Raises $250 Million AI Fund, Looking to Move Fast
The vehicle will target AI founders at early, even embryonic stages of development—often little more than back-of-the-envelope business plans
July 8, 2025 6:30 am ET|WSJ Pro
The skyline of Miami, where Boldstart Ventures is headquartered. Photo: marco bello/Reuters
Venture capital deals for hot artificial intelligence startups are happening at lightning speed. That, in part, is why Ed Sim, founder and general partner of Boldstart Ventures, wanted to keep his newest fund small and nimble.
Miami-based Boldstart has closed a $250 million fund to double down on the firm’s strategy of backing entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of company development—most of the time little more than a back-of-the-envelope business plan. It isn’t uncommon for Sim to meet a founder and shake hands on financing the same day, he said.
“With our fund size, we only have to be there as partners for a small select group, maybe 10 to 12 new founding teams per year between three partners,” Sim said. “For people who want to work with us and we want to work with them, we can move very fast.”
Founded in 2010, Boldstart will target sectors including AI infrastructure and application layer startups, cyber and crypto. Boldstart reached out mostly to institutional investors in raising the fund, Sim said.
The new AI-focused fund is the latest instance of venture capitalists’ insatiable appetite for the technology. In this year’s first quarter, there were eight early-stage AI financings worldwide of $100 million or more, a quarterly record, according to data provider CB Insights.
The vehicle, called Fund VII, is Boldstart’s 10th fund. Initial checks will be from $500,000 to $15 million, and Boldstart can write follow-on checks via its existing $175 million Opportunities III fund. Sim said Boldstart has roughly $1.1 billion in assets under management. The firm is also led by General Partner Eliot Durbin and Partner Ellen Chisa.
Recent Boldstart exits include cybersecurity startup Protect AI, which in April said it would be acquired by security giant Palo Alto Networks. This month, AI editing company Grammarly said it would acquire email efficiency startup Superhuman—Boldstart made early investments in both companies, Sim said.
Competition between firms to back compelling AI-focused founders has grown, Sim said. Most of the founders Boldstart meets with arrive with a reference from others in his network, he added.
Because he invests in founders before they have a product, Sim said most of his assessment focuses on the entrepreneur.
“For us, it’s about assessing talent,” Sim said. “It’s looking at their background, what they shipped, their vision, their technical insight.”
Sim’s team also assesses a founder’s ability to attract talent and hire skilled employees.
“You see the world moving around talent magnets,” he said. “It’s about who can attract the best talent, who can run the fastest and who can adapt the fastest.”
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Appeared in the July 9, 2025, print edition as ‘Boldstart Ventures Raises $250 Million AI-Focused Fund’.