Section 32 (“S32”) today announced the closing of its Fund 5, an oversubscribed $525 million investment vehicle to back and scale companies innovating at the forefront of technology. Building on the legacy of S32’s previous funds, Fund 5 will invest in companies that are pushing the boundaries in software and artificial intelligence (“AI”) to enable new capabilities and step-changes in performance across markets including enterprise software, cybersecurity, data infrastructure, gaming, fintech, precision medicine and computational biology.
“Entrepreneurs are the visionaries who bring the future to life, and S32 aims to invest in the most disruptive and impactful founders,” said Andy Harrison, Managing Partner and CEO of S32.
With its Google lineage, S32 is uniquely positioned to help catalyze the next wave of AI-driven disruption. Many of S32’s portfolio companies were sourced from, or traced back to, Alphabet, including: Cohere and Inceptive, co-founded by architects behind the groundbreaking 2017 Transformer paper; Exai Bio and BigHat Biosciences, co-founded by former leaders of Google Genomics and Google Brain; and Phaidra, co-founded by a senior researcher from Google Deepmind.
“At Google, Bill [Maris] and I had the privilege of being at the epicenter of groundbreaking advancements in software and AI,” said Harrison. “AI expertise of the highest caliber is a rarity, and we are thrilled that many of the premier innovators in the field are leaders of the companies in our portfolio.”
S32 also announced that Wesley Tillu was promoted from Senior Principal to Partner. Wesley joined S32 in 2021 from In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the CIA and U.S. intelligence community. At In-Q-Tel, Wesley led and executed several investments across cybersecurity, AI/ML, enterprise software, fintech and other frontier technologies. Wesley also holds prior experience at Google, GIC, and Merrill Lynch, as well as degrees in business and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, and Cornell University.
Since joining S32, Wesley has helped source notable investments. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Inworld and is a board observer at Phaidra. Additionally, Wesley has extended S32’s research capabilities and bolstered S32’s partnerships with the entrepreneurial community and other top-tier venture capital firms.
About Section 32
S32 is a venture capital firm investing at the frontiers of technology. Founded by Bill Maris, the team has deep experience building iconic companies. Our goal is to accelerate the discovery, development, and distribution of revolutionary technologies that improve the human condition. We invest across the entirety of technology. This includes artificial intelligence, enterprise software, cybersecurity, fintech, quantum computing, computational biology and biotechnology.
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