Former Meta chief scientist Yann LeCun has joined new firm 224 Ventures, which will invest in AI startups.
LeCun, known as the ‘AI godfather, launched Paris-based world models startup AMI Labs last year, which has since picked up $1bn in funding.
224 Ventures will be run by LeCun, alongside Google DeepMind researcher Oriol Vinyals and AIX Ventures founder Shaun Johnson.
The firm has $100m in assets under management, and will look to write $1m-$5m cheques for AI-native teams, according to its website. Its LP base is made up of 244 people, primarily AI operators.
While the site does not specify where the fund will be operating from, its privacy policy references Californian laws. Vinyals and Johnson are both based in San Francisco, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
This new fund comes a month after Sifted exclusively reported that LeCun had launched a new AI fund Extelligence Invest. Documents seen by Sifted referred to LeCun as a non-managing general partner. LeCun’s spokesperson confirmed his involvement.
Following Sifted’s reporting, LeCun quit the fund after exclusivity relationships emerged between him and other funds. In a statement to Sifted, Extelligence pointed to LeCun’s “existing exclusive relationships with other funds that were not fully understood at the time,” and cited new knowledge about “legal and contractual complications” concerning his involvement.
LeCun told Bloomberg that reports about Extelligence were “inaccurate due to a miscommunication / misunderstanding.” According to Bloomberg, he declined to elaborate further.
In a post announcing the new fund on LinkedIn, Johnson writes that himself, Vinyl and LeCun will be “investing exclusively through 224.” LeCun is also an advisor to London-based VC firm Hiro Capital.
Interested to hear about what happened to Extelligence Invest?
