Menlo Ventures and Anthropic unveiled the Anthology Fund on Wednesday, with a $100 million initiative designed to fuel AI innovation. The fund, targeting startups from seed to expansion stages, will invest in companies leveraging Anthropic's AI models to develop applications and infrastructure solutions.
“By combining Menlo’s company-building experience with Anthropic’s cutting-edge AI technology and talent, we are uniquely positioned to identify and partner with the most promising entrepreneurs shaping the future of AI,” said Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy, in a release.
The venture capital firm, which recently led a $750 million funding round in Anthropic, is carving out the $100 million from its latest $1.35 billion vehicle raised in November 2023.
The Anthology Fund will concentrate on five key areas: AI infrastructure, frontier applications, consumer AI solutions, trust and safety tooling, and AI applications for societal benefits. Investments will start at $100,000, with backed startups also receiving $25,000 worth of credits for Anthropic's most advanced AI models.
Startups selected for the Anthology Fund will also gain access to Menlo's network and resources. The initiative includes a structured program featuring quarterly deep dives with Menlo Partners and Anthropic's developer relations team, along with bi-annual demo days hosted by leadership from both firms.
The partnership between Menlo Ventures and Anthropic represents a strategic move in the AI landscape. Menlo's recent investment makes it one of the largest backers of Anthropic, a company known for its AI safety research and its flagship product, Claude—a large language model that currently stands as the strongest competitor to OpenAI’s GPT-4o.
OpenAI has its own startup fund, which has over $175 million and has already backed startups like Descript (which develops an AI video editor), Harvey (an AI-powered legal assistant) and Mem.AI, an AI tool widely used on Twitter (aka X) to better understand, summarize, and explain long posts.
Edited by Andrew Hayward