Anthropic and Menlo Ventures Unveil $100M ‘Anthology Fund’ to Accelerate AI Innovation
Anthropic, a leading artificial intelligence company, has partnered with Silicon Valley venture capital firm Menlo Ventures to launch a $100 million initiative called the “Anthology Fund.” This new fund aims to accelerate the development of groundbreaking AI applications by supporting startups innovating with Anthropic’s technology.
The Anthology Fund will focus on backing entrepreneurs primarily in five key areas: AI infrastructure, novel applications of AI in industries such as healthcare and education, consumer AI solutions, trust and safety tooling, and AI applications that maximize societal benefits. Investments will start at $100,000 for early-stage companies, with the fund targeting pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds.
Daniela Amodei, co-founder and President of Anthropic, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “We hope to accelerate the development of groundbreaking AI applications. We’re particularly interested in ventures that leverage AI to enhance human capabilities and productivity in fields such as healthcare, legal services, education, energy, infrastructure, and scientific research.”
Startups selected for the Anthology Fund will receive multiple benefits, including:
- Access to Anthropic’s products and research
- $25,000 in free credits towards Anthropic’s most advanced models
- Venture support from Menlo Ventures
- Quarterly deep dives with Menlo Partners and Anthropic’s developer relations team
- Bi-annual demo days hosted by leadership from both firms
Matt Murphy, Partner at Menlo Ventures, highlighted the unique positioning of the fund: “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.”
The launch of the Anthology Fund mirrors similar initiatives in the tech industry, such as the iFund partnership between Apple and Kleiner Perkins in 2008. However, Murphy noted that the current AI wave is moving 10 to 100 times faster than previous innovation cycles.
This partnership comes at a time of intense competition and investment in the AI sector. Anthropic, known for its AI safety research and its flagship product Claude, is positioning itself as a strong competitor to OpenAI. The Anthology Fund may be seen as a strategic move to build an ecosystem around Anthropic’s technology, similar to OpenAI’s own startup fund.
Interested startups can apply for the Anthology Fund through an online form, with Menlo Ventures using proprietary machine learning tools to score and rank applications. The firm has indicated that the due diligence process for these investments will be more “lightweight” than for typical investments.
