Base10 will continue investing in founders who are centering their companies around automation.

Base10 is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm co-founded by Managing Partner Adeyemi Ajao that invests in companies implementing AI and automation across a variety of industries. TechCrunch reports that Ajao comes from a diverse background with African, European, and Latin roots, and was raised in Spain and Nigeria. He has an impressive professional track record, including co-founding Tuenti, a Spanish social media company, while in college, which Telefonica later acquired for $100 million. He went on to launch several more companies (Jobandtalent, Identified, Cabify) before becoming Vice President of Technology Product Strategy at Workday, according to his LinkedIn.

Ajao is now leveraging his career experience to find other brilliant founders through Base10, alongside Managing Partner TJ Nahigian. The VC firm is investing in founders from seed through Series B.

Base 10’s first fund closed with $137 million in 2018, per TechCrunch. According to a press release, it now has $2.6 billion in assets under management, and it is closing $850 million in new funding.

Shoppe Black reports that the new capital comprises a seed and Series A fund along with a separate Series B fund, with backing from endowments, pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and other institutional investors.

Per, Shoppe Black, Base10’s portfolio companies include:

• Nubank

• Brex

• Instacart

• Notion

• Motive

• WeTravel

• Blank Street

• Lexroom

• HappyRobot

“When we raised Fund I, we called ourselves the first fund focused on Applied AI for the Real Economy, and LPs told us applied AI was too ‘niche’ and ‘not a thing,’ so we had to change it to Automation,” said Ajao in the press release. “Today, we have several portfolio companies applying AI to the Real Economy that are growing from zero to tens of millions in revenue in under 12 months — that is unprecedented.”

“The Automation of the Real Economy is here. Those companies are where the new capital is going to go, and we are so thankful for the trust of our founders and LPs at this key moment of economic transformation. This is what Base10 was founded for,” he continued.

Funds have already been deployed from the $850 million raise, including to support the VC firm’s Advancement Initiative, which donates up to 50% of carried interest to students from all backgrounds to advance their opportunities in tech, per the press release.

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