Leonis Capital Closes $25M Fund II to Back AI Builders

A completely subscribed fund supported by establishments and AI researchers, constructed to speculate early in founders with deep technical conviction.

San Francisco, California / Access to Newswire / 16 September 2025 / Leonis Capital introduced his absolutely subscribed Fund II of $ 25 million. The fund is supported by institutional LPS and a various mixture of operators and founders within the AI ​​business with FOFs, foundations, in addition to researchers and managers of Nvidia, OpenAi and Anthropic. This comes three years after the rise of fund I, because of the regular momentum and powerful efficiency of the corporate. “Fund II represents a significant milestone in our evolution of a specialised boutique to construct an funding platform for institutional high quality that invests in one of the necessary industries (in AI) of our lives,” says Jay Zhao, managing companion at Leonis Capital.

Leonis Capital was based by Jay Zhao, who spent greater than ten years as a enterprise investor, investing in Enterprise, Cell, Fintech and Cloud. He has invested in 11 unicorns, with 3 of these firms changing into public. Zhao and his earlier fund have been early donors of Marqeta, the main fintech firm that drives the “on-demand economic system” as Doordash and Uber and ultimately served on the board earlier than the corporate turned public. Furthermore, for the reason that early days, Zhao additionally supported unicorns resembling lime and workboard.

In 2020, Zhao famous that almost all enterprise funds are more and more driving rounds and affect throughout exaggerated indexing on consensus signaling as an alternative of considering of the primary rules. “I believed that many of the daring martels missed the aim in figuring out the subsequent wave of remodeling AI firms as a result of they have been disconnected from the technical foundations of an organization, which can overlook essentially the most progressive builders,” says Zhao. He believed that to construct an intergenerational firm that invests in AI, the corporate needed to be structurally technical and analysis -driven, capable of make early counterfeit bets based mostly on deep technical understanding as an alternative of a market momentum.

To comprehend this imaginative and prescient, Zhao collaborated with Jenny Xiao, who was an early worker and researcher at OpenAI and her doctorate from Columbia College. ZHAO brings the institutional funding self-discipline and enterprise construction expertise of a seasoned enterprise investor, whereas Xiao provides the technical depth and analysis covers important for figuring out actual breakthroughs in synthetic intelligence. Furthermore, Leonis additionally has 8 analysis maates with PhD college students and researchers from Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, and so on., serving to the corporate to advertise elementary analysis.

“We do not simply speak about applied sciences, we immerse ourselves in them,” explains Xiao. By means of their research-driven method, Leonis Capital is ready to generalize their classes right into a thesis-driven method that continuously evolves because the AI ​​panorama modifications. The corporate recurrently publishes Extensive analysis and research documents These on a big scale are unfold amongst Silicon Valley AI founders, VCs and researchers. A few of their extra placing works are their essay “Zero or Hero”, an evaluation of 10,000-plus phrase that outlines how the corporate warns Foundation models And AI -Applicationsdistinguish between incremental enhancements and actual breakthroughs, and their 40+ page -Report profiling of the evolution of OpenAI From a non-profit analysis laboratory to the “Alle Platform” in AI. Their method feels extra like tutorial researchers who develop and take a look at hypotheses than conventional VCs that chase offers.

“The Leonis crew has clear and effectively thought out concepts about the place AI goes and why. That’s placing in an business that’s typically vulnerable to hype-striking as an alternative of deep considering,” mentioned Todor Markov, an early OpenAi researcher now at Anthropic, and likewise at Leonis Capital LP.

The analysis -driven method of the corporate has already produced spectacular leads to his first fund.

Fonds I, a Classic Fund from 2021, already performs within the high 1% of the enterprise funds in its classic, in accordance with PitchBook information. The portfolio has already generated exceptional returns. A few of Fund I’s early bets have additionally achieved unicorn standing, with the most important hits at 50x – 200x Markups and a few portfolio firms have additionally left Huge Tech Giants resembling Nvidia and Google.

Embrace placing investments Maintenancean AI-driven upkeep operations ERP platform that was later supported by Bessemer and Bain Capital Ventures, which achieved a ranking of $ 2.5 billion; Motion AIAn AI-FIRST mission administration platform has achieved a big entry middle for the reason that seed funding of Leonis and later investments by Sam Altman and Scale Enterprise Companions. Related processes apply to different fund I -portfolio firms.

“The Leonis crew was involved with our AI route map at a technical depth that distinguishes them from most different VCs with which we now have interplay. The power to attach technical potentialities with market realities helped us to construct one thing that’s not solely progressive however commercially viable, the sort of guider that we actually admire,” says Harry Qi, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai, Movement Ai Movement.

Along with the spectacular funding outcomes, the Leonis crew lays the inspiration to construct a platform for institutional high quality. “For us, Fund II provides an opportunity to not solely enhance our analysis -driven methodology, but in addition to enhance our determination -making high quality with the most recent AI Tech Stack,” says Zhao. The corporate has taken steps to construct inner software program instruments and frameworks that systematize its method to scale. “We’re constructing an AI system that we name internally” Alfa “, skilled in all our considering, success, studying and expertise. We anticipate that Alfa will enhance over time as we construct up extra expertise, resembling our personal sign observe -up programs that Presenten Github, tutorial papers and analysis conferences. “Techniques resembling Alfa assist us to determine promising technical expertise earlier than the formation of the corporate, it additionally helps us to have extra in-depth conversations with technical founders when an necessary AI-Native constructing block turns into out there for builders (resembling multi-agent Workflow, MCP, and so on.).”

“What made essentially the most impression on me about Leonis is how rigorous they suppose,” says Stefano Corazza, head of AI analysis at Canva and former head of AI at Roblox. “As a researcher and an operator, I see their technical depth and thesis-driven self-discipline as a uncommon firm, and precisely what the subsequent era of AI founders want.”

Till now, LPS just isn’t solely impressed by the return of Leonis, but in addition with the information of the information they win from the analysis -driven method of the corporate. “Leonis has constructed one of the technically superior funding platforms that I’ve seen: deep technical, methodical analysis and never afraid to go early if it counts. From an LP perspective they not solely preserve it on the border, they assist to outline it,” says Serial Founder and former LP Tseng Tonds.

Zhao and Xiao each perceive how rapidly the AI ​​area strikes and the way in -depth and sturdy the influence of will probably be on society. “With each technological paradigm shift there’s a want for a brand new class of capital suppliers, who actually perceive the underlying physics of change,” Zhao displays. “The very best founders in AI are searching for greater than capital, and as an organization we see ourselves as the primary companion for technical founders. We’re convincing and we’re analysis in our core. In the end, that’s what is required to construct a everlasting institutional enterprise franchise within the AI ​​period.”

About Leonis Capital: Leonis capital is a voice-driven daring firm based mostly in San Francisco, aimed toward AI-Native firms. Since 2021 it has been working within the earliest phases with technical founders and combines the deep technical experience with institutional funding expertise.

SOURCE: Leonis capital

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