Anthropic, the A.I. startup behind ChatGPT rival Claude, announced today (July 17) that it’s partnering up with one of its investors, Menlo Ventures, to launch a $100 million fund that aims to advance the use of Anthropic’s A.I. technology and bring innovative startups to the VC firm. Known as the Anthology Fund, the initiative will see Menlo Ventures funnel investments starting at $100,000 to companies from seed to expansion stages. While Anthropic will not take on equity stakes in startups, it will provide them the use of its most advanced products, offer $25,000 in free credits and allow for startups to showcase progress to Anthropic’s president Daniela Amodei and chief product officer Mike Krieger.
In an unusual move, Anthropic’s flagship product, Claude, will also directly participate in the Anthology Fund. The chatbot will help recommend startups for the fund, Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy told Bloomberg, a remark that was confirmed by Menlo Ventures.
“We are using Claude as part of an automation workflow that we built to manage the influx of applications due to the high amount of inbound that we’ve already received,” a Menlo Ventures spokesperson told Observer in an emailed statement. “But the ultimate decision of which founders and startups we back will be the responsibility of the investment committee.” Anthropic did not respond to requests for comment regarding Claude’s role in suggesting potential deals.
Anthropic was founded in 2020 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, both former OpenAI employees, as a company focused on responsible A.I. Anthropic was earlier this year valued at $15 billion after closing a $750 million round led by Menlo Ventures.The venture capital firm, which will see Menlo Venture partners like Murphy, Tim Tully and Amy Wu lead its Anthology Fund, manages $64 billion in assets and counts more than 80 companies in its portfolio.
“Through our partnership with Menlo Ventures and the Anthology Fund, we hope to accelerate the development of groundbreaking A.I. applications,” said Daniela Amodei in a statement, adding that the Anthology Fund is “particularly interested in ventures that leverage A.I. to enhance human capabilities and productivity in fields such as healthcare, legal services, education, energy, infrastructure and scientific research.”
Applications are open online for the fund, which will focus on startups emphasizing areas like A.I. infrastructure advancing the use of Anthropic’s Claude and other A.I. models, applications of A.I. across healthcare and cybersecurity, and the enhancement of social benefits and A.I. safety. “Our mission is to empower ambitious founders to create solutions that don’t just drive value but fundamentally reshape industries and improve lives,” said Tully in a statement.
Anthropic isn’t the first A.I. company to take advantage of a booming investment environment for the technology. The OpenAI Startup Fund, which is associated with OpenAI but doesn’t count the company as an investor, is investing some $175 million into early-stage A.I. startups. The Anthology Fund additionally draws inspiration from the iFund, a 2008 partnership between Apple (AAPL) and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins that also began with $100 million.
While the iFund was “wildly successful” in offering Apple access to developers, A.I. innovation is moving faster than iPhone development ever did, Murphy told CNBC. Global startup funding between April and June of this year more than doubled to $24 billion, according to data from Crunchbase, accounting for more than 30 percent of global startup funding during the quarter.
