Announcing Earthling VC's $4.5M Fund I
This is perhaps the least spectacular fundraising announcement you'll read this month.
I’m amped to finally announce the close of Earthling VC Fund I, a $4.5M fund investing first round/first check in next-generation computing surfaces and mediums, mainly focusing on VR, robotics, and AI — or, simply, the UI of the next generation of technology. Fund I is backed by legendary LPs like Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Andrew Chen, Adam Draper, and Allocator One.
Here are some of the themes we currently care about and are actively investing in:
VR-native IP.
Non-humanoid robots solving human-like tasks (with blue ocean market opportunities).
Things making hardware development cheaper, faster, and more accessible (we need more robots!)
Defragmentation of the enterprise VR market.
Agents that radically upend or consolidate archaic, fragmented markets.
It’s never been easier to build these kinds of startups rapidly and profitably than ever before. Fund I is Earthling’s first wedge to capture immense value at the precipice of a paradigm shift in the VC industry, which we believe will see many minted winners raise capital only once (and early) and opt out of the VC treadmill entirely (like VR studios).
Fund I invested very early checks in teams building awesome things like (just to name a few!):
Trass Games, a top-3 free-to-play social VR studio.
Nunu, automating testing for games (and robots) for big-name gaming studios — and setting AI world records in Pokémon.
Talus Robotics, building robotic guide dogs for the underserved blind market.
MecAgent, speeding up and bringing down costs for tedious hardware design.
Loki Robotics, the world’s first commercial robotic cleaning service.
Full Fund I portfolio here.
I quit my machine learning job at Meta to begin institutionalizing my angel investing into the 3D space, which began to take up more time and money than I could personally commit next to a full-time engineering job. I started raising this fund in a historically brutal market for new funds, and as a new GP with no prior professional VC background, pitching a weird thesis that invests in unpopular things. Needless to say, raising this fund was a very difficult (but important!) endeavor that took a village of early believers to make real. A big thank you to my early believers: our LPs, founders, and friends who were invaluable in making this fund happen.
LFG
Congrats! Super interesting thesis!