Criteria

🧭 AI Squared Venture Criteria

Stage & Traction

  • Seeking late seed to Series A-stage companies—typically those with ≥ $2 M ARR and ≥ 3× YoY revenue growth.

  • Companies should be beyond MVP and demonstrating early product–market fit (e.g. consistent user/install/usage metrics, stable NPS, clear retention).

Sector Focus

  • Core verticals include SaaS, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure/IT Software, and Energy Technology, Defense Technology.

  • Prefer companies innovating across software-driven energy, AI-enabled Infra, or foundational enterprise platforms.

Founding Team

  • Founded or led by a domain-expert entrepreneur with significant industry experience.

  • Strong preference for complementary founding teams combining technical, commercial and growth capabilities.

  • Coachability and willingness to partner closely—open to feedback and active collaboration.

Market Opportunity

  • Serving a massive and growing addressable market (TAM)—ideally $1B+.

  • Demonstrates a unique insight or disruptive business model—not incremental.

Strategic Understanding

  • We must be able to articulate, champion, and sell the company’s strategy to our network confidently.

  • Requires clarity around customer acquisition model, unit economics, and scalability roadmap.

Return & Exit Expectations

  • Structured only for venture-scale returns—seeking ~10–20× return profile.

  • Expect liquidity event within ~5 years (M&A or IPO).

  • First check sizes range $250K–$500K, with ability to lead or follow later rounds.

Partnering Philosophy

  • We play an active and supportive role—not passive capital—providing operational guidance, go-to-market support, and network access.

  • We are not a philanthropic fund. We do not sponsor events/expositions/etc., and we do not invest in biotech, medtech, or pharma.

Alignment with top-tier VCs

  • Like NEA, we are sector-focused but stage-agnostic within our verticals, and offer foundational partnership .

  • Like Sequoia, we aim for early-stage, conviction-led investments targeting large markets and outsized returns .

  • Like Index, we back cross-functional founding teams with passion + insight + innovation .