Fund profile / United States

Banyan Ventures AI Fund I

Geography: United States
Stage: Pre-Seed
Fund size: $10M
Focus: AI/ML and SaaS
Signals: Published

N°01 / About

About Banyan Ventures AI Fund I

Banyan Ventures AI Fund I is a venture capital firm based in United States, focusing on Pre-Seed stage investments. The fund actively supports founders building innovative solutions in AI/ML, SaaS, providing strategic guidance and capital to help startups scale.

N°02 / Thesis

Investment Focus

Location / RegionUnited States

Funding StagePre-Seed

Industry Focus

AI/ML

SaaS

Investor Signals Profile

active

Sweet Spot

AI-native infra/app founder at idea stage, NYC preferred

AI-native infra

AI-native applications

pre-seed

idea stage

NYC-based

Bullish Signals

3/4 early investments tracking $1B+external

54% advising clients raised Series Aexternal

18% advising clients reached Series Bexternal

Portfolio includes Langbase, Tensordyneexternal

Advisor to 15+ AI infra cos since 2018external

Two exits: Samsung, NVIDIA acquisitionsexternal

Scaled Comet ML seed→Series B, 150+ customersexternal

Clients: Uber, Cisco, Etsy, Netflixwebsite

Advised Deci.ai (acq. NVIDIA), ClearML, Nomic AIwebsite

First hire in $2B+ experiment tracking marketwebsite

Category builder across multiple AI infra marketswebsite

Mission: help humanity via AI-native investmentwebsite

Founders bring Sam in at day-zero advisorwebsite

8 years pivotal AI infrastructure sector experiencewebsite

MissingLink.ai acquisition by Samsung 2018website

Deci.ai optimized model market acquired NVIDIAwebsite

Trusted by founders: Ahmad Awais, Giles Backhuswebsite

Advised 9+ AI startups: Layer, Datature, Deepnotewebsite

Contrarian Signals

Solo GP — single point of failureexternal

Extremely narrow AI-only thesisexternal

Fund size/AUM not disclosedexternal

Founder Do's

Build AI-native infra or applications

Bring Sam in as day-zero advisor

Show enterprise GTM potential early

Be at idea/pre-seed stage

Target new AI infrastructure categories

Founder Don'ts

Don't pitch post-seed stage deals

Don't pitch non-AI startups

Don't expect passive investor

30 signals on Banyan Ventures AI Fund I

18 bullish · 3 contrarian · 5 pitch do's · 3 don'ts · 1 GP profile, each with its source. From €9/month, cancel anytime.

See a signal free View Plans Browse all Signal Profiles →

Facts

Fund Overview

Fund Size$10M

Saves0

Website

People

Key People

Sam Awrabi

Sam AwrabiFounder & Solo GP

N°04 / See also

Related Funds

Breed VC Fund II

Fund size$15M

Location: United States
Stage: Pre Seed
Focus

Pre Seed

Petra Capital Partners (V)

Fund size$270M

Location: United States
Stage: Series A
Focus: Saas
Manager: Doug Owen, David Fitzgerald

Series A

Saas

LS Power Equity Partners Fund V

Fund size$2.7B

Location: United States
Stage: Growth
Focus: Energy Tech, Climate Sustainability, Infrastructure Tech
Manager: Paul Segal, David Nanus, Darpan Kapadia

Growth

Energy Tech

Climate Sustainability

Infrastructure Tech