The origins of Laude Ventures trace back to UC Berkeley, where Konwinski cofounded Databricks, and Sonsini was an early investor. The partners have a history of investing in research-driven startups, with previous ventures showing significant returns. Despite concerns about the replicability of their past successes, Laude Ventures is confident in its ability to compete with established funds, citing its strategic venture experience and strong network. The firm is not explicitly AI-focused but is likely to invest in related fields such as infrastructure, data analytics, and virtualization.
Key takeaways:
```html
- Laude Ventures, co-founded by Pete Sonsini, Andy Krioukov, and Andy Konwinski, is a seed-stage firm focused on research-driven, highly-technical founders, particularly from UC Berkeley.
- The firm has closed a $150 million first fund to invest in pre-seed and seed stage startups, with plans to back about 25 companies.
- Laude Ventures has already invested in four companies, including Perplexity, GPU cloud provider Foundry, and data startup Tabsdata.
- The partners aim to leverage their deep ties to the tech research community and their network of more than 50 leaders in computer science and AI to identify and support promising startups.