Obvious Ventures Closes Fifth Fund Focused on Planetary, Economic, and Human Health.

Obvious Ventures, the firm co-founded by Twitter's Evan Williams, has closed its fifth fund. Staying true to its tradition, this fund features another distinctive figure: $360,360,360.

"We invest at the intersection of math, science, and physics, and we enjoy honoring mathematics through our fund sizes as well," explained James Joaquin (pictured far right), the firm’s co-founder and managing director, in an interview with TechCrunch.

The firm's debut fund was $123,456,789, followed by a second fund of $191,919,191—a palindrome that reads identically forwards and backwards. Its third fund, $271,828,182, is instantly recognizable to mathematicians and engineers as an approximation of Euler's number (e). The fourth fund, announced in mid-2022, continued the pattern as another palindrome: $355,111,553.

If the meaning behind the latest fund’s size isn't immediately apparent, it's less about mathematical novelty and more reflective of the firm’s core philosophy. After twelve years in operation, Obvious explains that this figure symbolizes a comprehensive, 360-degree perspective on its three primary investment themes: planetary health, human health, and economic health.

"We appreciate the metaphor of taking a full 360-degree view within each of these focus areas," Joaquin remarked. "Understanding what has succeeded and what hasn't requires a deep study of the past."

According to Joaquin, the firm's strategy involves maintaining fund sizes that are deliberately modest. This approach ensures that a single successful investment, if it develops into a lasting public company, has the potential to return the fund's entire capital. His emphasis on durability may stem, in part, from the experience with Obvious's early standout, Beyond Meat. The company soared to a market cap exceeding $14 billion shortly after its 2019 IPO but later saw its valuation drop below $1 billion by late 2022.   

Nevertheless, Joaquin states that the firm has delivered meaningful cash returns to its limited partners from all its core funds, with several portfolio companies achieving successful public exits. For instance, Obvious Ventures invested in satellite imagery company Planet Labs in 2015; it went public via a SPAC in 2021 and is currently valued at around $8.5 billion. Similarly, its Series A investment in Recursion Pharmaceuticals maintains a market capitalization above $2 billion.

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Obvious is also an early backer of the HR and payroll platform Gusto, which most recently attained a private market valuation exceeding $9 billion and is widely viewed as being on a path toward an initial public offering.

In a venture capital landscape where, according to research from Sapphire Partners, only about 17% of firms successfully raise more than three funds, Obvious Ventures' latest fundraising milestone firmly establishes it as a seasoned player in the industry.

"Reaching our fifth fund is a significant achievement within the venture capital ecosystem," Joaquin noted.

While Obvious Ventures may have a playful approach to naming its fund sizes, its commitment to backing startups that create positive global impact is unwavering. Joaquin highlighted key investments across each of the firm's three thematic pillars.

Within planetary health, the firm invested in Zanskar, a company leveraging proprietary data and AI to discover and utilize geothermal energy—one of the most cost-effective power sources available. Zanskar recently announced a $115 million Series C round. Obvious Ventures, which led the company's prior round, is particularly enthusiastic about this investment. Joaquin pointed out that the geothermal energy identified by Zanskar has significant potential to power the energy-intensive data centers required for AI.

In its human health focus, Obvious Ventures highlighted its investment in Inceptive, an AI-powered platform for molecular design. Inceptive was founded by Jakob Uszkoreit, a primary author of the landmark research paper "Attention is All You Need," which introduced the transformer architecture—the foundational breakthrough behind modern generative AI.

Addressing economic health, Joaquin cited Dexterity Robotics. The company, which reached a valuation of $1.65 billion last year, develops humanoid robots designed to take over "dull, dirty, and dangerous" tasks currently performed by humans in warehouses and factories.

Alongside Joaquin, Obvious Ventures' active investment team includes four other partners, including co-founder Vishal Vasishth. (Ev Williams remains a co-founder and advisor.) The firm plans to make roughly 10 new investments per year, with check sizes typically ranging from $5 million to $12 million for Seed and Series A-stage startups.