# What's Hot in AI/Infra/VC - boldstart ventures

the inception fund

# helping the bold start

First checks for technical founders since 2010.

## What are you building?

Cybersecurity

AI Infra

Physical AI

Agents

Weird

## Partners from Inception

[Clay GTM engineering Backed since 2017](https://clay.com)
[Generalist AI General-purpose robotics Backed since 2024](https://generalistai.com)
[Protect AI AI security → Palo Alto Networks Backed since 2022](https://protectai.com)
[Keycard Identity & access for AI agents Backed since 2025](https://keycard.sh)
[Tessl AI-native development Backed since 2024](https://tessl.io)
[Snyk Developer-first security Backed since 2015](https://snyk.io)

A selection of inception investments.
[More companies →](/companies/)

## Team

Ed Sim — Founder & General Partner [X](https://x.com/edsim) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/edsim) [Bio](/team/ed-sim/)

Eliot Durbin — General Partner [X](https://x.com/etdurbin) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliotdurbin/) [Bio](/team/eliot-durbin/)

Ellen Chisa — Partner [X](https://x.com/ellenchisa) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenchisa/) [Bio](/team/ellen-chisa/)

Investors and operators for the zero-to-one.
[Full team →](/team/)

## News & Ideas

Our approach · Featured essay

### [Inception Investing: the new race to be first in Venture… and Pre-Seed isn’t first any more](/resources/inception-investing-first/)

Our approach to partnering with technical founders before company formation.

Ed Sim · boldstart ventures · October 27, 2023

[Why we start at inception](/resources/inception-investing-first/) 

<!-- news-feed:start -->
- [2026-09-09 Clay raises $115M at a $7.1B valuation, led by Wellington The New York Times News](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/business/dealbook/clay-ai-fundraising.html)

- [2026-07-15 Spectro Cloud raises over $100M to expand production AI infrastructure Spectro Cloud News](https://www.spectrocloud.com/news/spectro-cloud-raises-100-million-series-d-to-accelerate-production-ai-adoption)

- [2026-06-02 Congrats Generalist AI on $400M raise at $2B valuation Bloomberg News](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-04/nvidia-backed-robotics-startup-generalist-ai-valued-at-2-billion)

- [2026-04-02 GeneralistAI — When Robots Start to Improvise — Welcome to boldstart Ellen Chisa Ideas](/news/generalistai-when-robots-start-to-improvise-welcome-to-boldstart/)

- [2025-12-30 boldstart 2025 recap Ed Sim Ideas](/news/boldstart-2025-recap/)

- [2025-10-21 Keycard: The Identity and Access Platform for AI Agents, Welcome to boldstart! Ed Sim Ideas](/news/keycard-solving-the-ai-agent-identity-and-access-problem-welcome-to-boldstart/)

<!-- news-feed:end -->

Latest coverage and perspectives.[All news & ideas →](/news/)

## Connect

[What's 🔥 in AI/Infra/VC Ed's weekly newsletter Substack](https://whatshot.vc)
[boldstart ventures Company updates LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/boldstart-ventures)
[@boldstartvc Notes from the team X](https://x.com/boldstartvc)

Quarterly updates from boldstart and our portfolio companies.

[Sign up for the newsletter](https://news.boldstart.vc/)

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