# Radical Ventures

> Source: https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/radical_ventures
> Updated: 2026-06-27
> Categories: AI Companies, Venture Capital
> From AI Wiki (https://aiwiki.ai), a free encyclopedia of artificial intelligence. Quote with attribution.

Radical Ventures is a Toronto-based [venture capital](/wiki/venture_capital) firm that invests exclusively in artificial intelligence companies. Founded in 2017 by Jordan Jacobs and Tomi Poutanen, it was among the first dedicated AI venture funds in North America, and by 2025 it managed more than US$2.5 billion in assets across its funds. [1][3][9] The firm writes early checks into seed and Series A AI startups through its core early-stage funds, follows them with a later-stage growth fund, and operates from offices in Toronto, San Francisco, and London. [8][9] Radical is closely tied to Canada's deep-learning research community: co-founders Jacobs and Poutanen also helped establish the [Vector Institute](/wiki/vector_institute), and the firm counts [Geoffrey Hinton](/wiki/geoffrey_hinton) and [Fei-Fei Li](/wiki/fei_fei_li) among its backers and partners. [1][11][12] Its portfolio includes [Cohere](/wiki/cohere), [Waabi](/wiki/waabi), Twelve Labs, World Labs, and [Untether AI](/wiki/untether_ai), among others. [14][15][17][18]

## What is Radical Ventures?

Radical Ventures is an AI-specialist venture capital firm: it invests only in artificial intelligence rather than treating AI as one vertical among many. The firm has framed its work around a conviction that AI will rewrite essentially all software over the coming decade, and it concentrates on backing the researchers and operators it believes can build category-defining AI companies. [7] This focus distinguishes it from generalist Silicon Valley funds and from the broader category of [generative AI](/wiki/generative_ai) and [AI agents](/wiki/ai_agents) investing that became fashionable later. Radical describes itself as writing first checks into AI companies, then supporting them through their growth. [3]

Co-founder and managing partner Jordan Jacobs has summarized the founding thesis bluntly: "AI will eat all software over the next decade." [7] By 2025 the firm reported managing more than US$2.5 billion in assets and operating from three global hubs in Toronto, San Francisco, and London, after having reviewed thousands of AI startups while investing in only about 60. [3][9]

## Who founded Radical Ventures?

Radical Ventures was founded in 2017 in Toronto by Jordan Jacobs and Tomi Poutanen, the entrepreneurs who had earlier co-founded the enterprise machine-learning company Layer 6 AI in 2016. [1][2] TD Bank Group acquired Layer 6 about 15 months after it was founded, and the team joined the bank, with Jacobs taking on the role of Chief AI Officer for business and strategy. [1][6] The two soon left to build a venture firm focused entirely on AI, a thesis that was unusual at the time because most generalist funds treated AI as one vertical among many rather than the organizing principle of the firm. [6]

The first vehicle, Radical Fund I, was small. A 2019 BetaKit account put it at just under C$13 million, effectively a seed fund used to back early Canadian AI companies such as the antibody-search startup BenchSci. [6] Early reporting also named Benji Sucher and Maks Volkovs among the people involved in the firm's formation alongside Jacobs and Poutanen. [6] The leadership team expanded over the following years as Radical scaled into an institutional manager. Salim Teja, formerly of the Toronto innovation hub MaRS, joined as a partner, and Aaron Brindle joined as a partner leading public affairs. [3] Both are sometimes described loosely as part of the founding group, but the firm itself credits Jacobs and Poutanen as its co-founders. [1][2]

## How is Radical Ventures connected to the Vector Institute and Geoffrey Hinton?

Radical's defining characteristic is that it invests only in artificial intelligence, and its roots run directly into Canada's academic AI ecosystem. Jacobs and Poutanen were instrumental in founding the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Toronto in 2017, which they pitched to [Geoffrey Hinton](/wiki/geoffrey_hinton) and University of Toronto professor Richard Zemel. [1][12][13] Vector launched the same year with C$135 million in combined government and industry funding and became one of three national centres anchoring Canada's AI strategy. [13] Hinton, often called a godfather of deep learning, has served as Vector's chief scientific advisor. [13] That shared lineage gives Radical unusually deep access to the Toronto research community, and the firm has leaned on those relationships when sourcing and diligencing technical founders.

Hinton has gone beyond an academic association: he has been a backer of and contributor to Radical and was reported among the limited partners in its 2023 fund, and he provides technical and commercial mentorship through the firm's Radical AI Founders programming. [7][11] This research-to-startup pipeline is part of what distinguishes Radical from generalist funds.

## What funds and assets does Radical Ventures manage?

Radical scaled rapidly from its small first fund into a multi-billion-dollar manager. In 2019 it announced its first institutional fund, a roughly US$350 million (about C$471 million) vehicle, marking the point at which Jacobs left TD Bank to run the firm full time. [5][6] It later raised a US$100 million Opportunity Fund for follow-on investments into its best companies. [8]

In January 2023, Radical announced it was raising a US$550 million fund aimed at North American AI companies at the Series A stage. [7] Backers of that fund reportedly included the family office of former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, alongside [Geoffrey Hinton](/wiki/geoffrey_hinton) and [Fei-Fei Li](/wiki/fei_fei_li). [7] In August 2024 the firm announced a US$800 million growth fund, its first vehicle dedicated to later-stage AI businesses, allowing it to write larger checks into bigger companies, including its own portfolio companies as they matured. [8][10] At announcement, Radical said it had already closed the majority of the fund, and reporting at the time put the firm's total assets under management at about US$1.8 billion. [10] Describing the rationale, Jacobs told Bloomberg, "There are some truly giant future companies that are now transitioning from early stage to growth." [10] The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) was an anchor limited partner, contributing US$75 million to the growth fund as part of a relationship that exceeded US$200 million across Radical's funds since 2019. [4][8]

In October 2025, Radical held a final close of US$650 million (about C$907 million) for a new early-stage fund, which it described as its fourth fund in the early-stage category and its sixth fund overall. [9] CPP Investments again committed US$75 million, bringing its cumulative investment in Radical to roughly US$280 million since 2019. [4][9] Other limited partners across the firm's funds have included pension funds, endowments, and large institutional investors, along with strategic backers such as TD, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, and Wittington Investments. [5][9] Partner Aaron Brindle characterized the fund's investor base in plain terms: "Suffice to say they are large institutional investors, pension funds, and endowments." [9] By 2025 the firm reported managing more than US$2.5 billion in assets and operating from three global hubs in Toronto, San Francisco, and London. [3][9]

The table below summarizes Radical's main funds.

| Fund | Year announced | Size | Focus |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Radical Fund I | 2017-2019 | ~C$13M (just under) | Seed, early Canadian AI |
| First institutional fund | 2019 | ~US$350M (C$471M) | Early-stage AI |
| Opportunity Fund | early 2020s | US$100M | Follow-on investments |
| Series A fund | 2023 | US$550M (target) | North American Series A AI |
| Venture Growth Fund I | 2024 | ~US$800M | Later-stage AI |
| Early-stage fund (6th overall) | 2025 | US$650M (C$907M) | Early-stage AI |

## What has Radical Ventures invested in?

Radical's portfolio is concentrated in AI across infrastructure, foundation models, applied software, and autonomy. Its best-known investment is [Cohere](/wiki/cohere), the Toronto-based large-language-model company building enterprise AI; Radical was an early backer and participated in Cohere's US$40 million Series A in 2021, which was led by Index Ventures. [14] By 2025 Cohere was valued at roughly US$5.5 billion.

In autonomy, Radical is an investor in [Waabi](/wiki/waabi), the autonomous-trucking company founded by University of Toronto professor Raquel Urtasun, which raised a US$200 million Series B in June 2024 led by Uber and Khosla Ventures with participation from [NVIDIA](/wiki/nvidia) and others. [15][16] In AI chips, Radical was an early investor in [Untether AI](/wiki/untether_ai), a Toronto designer of energy-efficient inference processors; Untether wound down in 2025 after struggling to raise further capital, and AMD hired its engineering team in an acqui-hire announced in June 2025. [19][20]

Radical also backs a number of applied and frontier-model companies. It was an early investor in Twelve Labs, a video-understanding company, joining its seed round and continuing into its US$50 million Series A in 2024 that was co-led by NEA and NVIDIA's NVentures. [17] The firm co-led the 2024 launch financing of World Labs, the spatial-intelligence startup co-founded by [Fei-Fei Li](/wiki/fei_fei_li), alongside [Andreessen Horowitz](/wiki/andreessen_horowitz) and NEA. [18] Other portfolio companies include Reka, an AI research and model company; V7, a UK-based data and AI tooling company; Hebbia, which builds AI agents for knowledge work over legal and financial documents; Xanadu, a quantum-computing company; and Aspect Biosystems in AI-enabled biotechnology. [9] Radical has stated that despite meeting thousands of AI startups, it has invested in only around 60 companies, reflecting a deliberately concentrated strategy. [3]

The table below summarizes several notable AI investments and Radical's role in each.

| Company | Round / Year | Radical's role |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cohere | Series A, 2021 (US$40M, led by Index Ventures) | Early backer, participant |
| Untether AI | Series A, 2019 | Early investor (company wound down 2025) |
| Waabi | Series B, June 2024 (US$200M, led by Uber and Khosla Ventures) | Investor |
| Twelve Labs | Seed and Series A, 2024 (US$50M Series A co-led by NEA and NVentures) | Early investor, participant |
| World Labs | Launch financing, 2024 (US$230M total) | Co-lead, with Andreessen Horowitz and NEA |
| Hebbia | Early rounds | Early backer |
| V7 | Growth round | Investor |
| Reka | Growth round | Investor (led by Rob Toews) |

## Who are the advisors, scientific partners, and backers?

Radical's most distinctive asset is its network of senior AI researchers, who serve variously as backers, advisors, and partners. [Fei-Fei Li](/wiki/fei_fei_li), the Stanford professor who created the ImageNet dataset and co-directs the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, joined Radical as a Scientific Partner in February 2023. [11] Explaining the move, Li wrote: "Radical is a different kind of VC. They are at the center of a global AI talent ecosystem driving the innovations that will ultimately transform every company and every industry." [21] [Geoffrey Hinton](/wiki/geoffrey_hinton), the Turing Award winner and 2024 Nobel laureate in physics, has been a backer of and contributor to the firm and was reported among the limited partners in its 2023 fund. [7][11] Both Hinton and Li have also been individual investors in Radical portfolio companies such as Cohere.

The firm has additionally collaborated with [Yoshua Bengio](/wiki/yoshua_bengio), the Turing Award winner and Mila founder, who co-led with Radical a pre-seed financing of the medical-diagnostics startup Ubenwa and has participated in Radical events; he is best described as a frequent collaborator rather than a titled partner of the firm. Through its Radical AI Founders programming, the firm has convened figures including Hinton and Li for public discussions, reinforcing its position at the centre of the research-to-startup pipeline. [11]

## Who are the notable people at Radical Ventures?

Jordan Jacobs is co-founder and managing partner and is the firm's most public figure; he previously co-founded Layer 6 AI and the Vector Institute and serves on boards including the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). [1] Tomi Poutanen is co-founder and a partner and shares the Layer 6 and Vector Institute lineage. [2] Salim Teja is a partner who leads the firm's Velocity team and brings more than two decades of experience across entrepreneurship, venture investing, and ecosystem building, including a prior role at MaRS. [3] Aaron Brindle is a partner focused on public affairs. [3] Rob Toews, a partner who leads the firm's Bay Area office and writes a widely read AI column, has led several Radical investments including Hebbia, Reka, and Twelve Labs. [3] The senior team also includes vice chair John Megrue, former McKinsey global managing partner Dominic Barton, and partners David Katz, Parasvil Patel, Aaron Rosenberg, and Sanjana Basu, among others. [3]

As a dedicated AI investor with deep ties to the field's leading researchers, a multi-billion-dollar asset base, and a portfolio that spans foundation models, chips, autonomy, and applied software, Radical Ventures is generally regarded as one of the leading AI-specialist venture firms, and the most prominent one based in Canada.

## References

1. Radical Ventures, Jordan Jacobs team page. https://radical.vc/team/jordan-jacobs/
2. Radical Ventures, Tomi Poutanen team page. https://radical.vc/team/tomi-poutanen/
3. Radical Ventures, full team page. https://radical.vc/teams/
4. CPP Investments, "Seeding the Future: Radical Ventures and the Rise of Canadian AI." https://www.cppinvestments.com/insight-institute/seeding-the-future-radical-ventures-and-the-rise-of-canadian-ai/
5. PSP Investments, "Radical Ventures Launches USD $350 Million VC Fund focused on Artificial Intelligence." https://www.investpsp.com/en/news/radical-ventures-launches-usd-350-million-vc-fund-focused-on-artificial-intelligence/
6. BetaKit, "Co-founder of Layer 6, Vector Institute leaves TD Bank to launch $471 million CAD AI venture fund." https://betakit.com/co-founder-of-layer-6-vector-institute-leaves-td-bank-to-launch-471-million-cad-ai-venture-fund/
7. BetaKit, "Radical Ventures raising new $550 million USD fund as AI sector heats up." https://betakit.com/radical-ventures-raising-new-550-million-usd-ai-fund-as-sector-heats-up/
8. BetaKit, "Radical Ventures launches $800-million USD AI growth fund." https://betakit.com/radical-ventures-launches-800-million-usd-ai-growth-fund/
9. BetaKit, "Radical Ventures holds $650-million USD final close for new early-stage AI fund." https://betakit.com/radical-ventures-holds-650-million-usd-final-close-for-new-early-stage-ai-fund/
10. Bloomberg, "AI-Focused VC Radical Ventures Nears $800 Million Fundraise." https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-13/ai-focused-vc-radical-ventures-nears-800-million-fundraise
11. Axios, "AI expert Fei-Fei Li joins Radical Ventures as partner." https://www.axios.com/2023/02/10/fei-fei-li-ai-expert-radical-ventures
12. The Logic, "The Vector Institute at five." https://thelogic.co/news/the-big-read/the-vector-institute-at-five/
13. Wikipedia, "Vector Institute (Canada)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_Institute_(Canada)
14. Radical Ventures, "Cohere raises $40 million Series A." https://radical.vc/radical-reads-cohere-raises
15. CNBC, "Uber, Khosla, Nvidia invest in $200 million funding round for autonomous trucking startup Waabi." https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/18/uber-khosla-nvidia-invest-in-autonomous-trucking-startup-waabi.html
16. The Logic, "Waabi raises US$200M led by Uber, Khosla Ventures." https://thelogic.co/news/waabi-series-b-uber-khosla-ventures/
17. PR Newswire, "Twelve Labs Earns $50 Million Series A Co-led by NEA and NVIDIA's NVentures." https://www.prweb.com/releases/twelve-labs-earns-50-million-series-a-co-led-by-nea-and-nvidias-nventures-to-build-the-future-of-multimodal-ai-302163279.html
18. Crunchbase News, "AI Startup World Labs Launches With $230M From Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia's Venture Arm." https://news.crunchbase.com/ai/world-labs-launches-a16z-nventures/
19. TechCrunch, "AMD acqui-hires the employees behind Untether AI." https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/06/amd-acqui-hires-the-employees-behind-untether-ai/
20. EE Times, "Untether AI Shuts Down, Engineering Team Joins AMD." https://www.eetimes.com/untether-ai-shuts-down-engineering-team-joins-amd/
21. Radical Ventures, "Fei-Fei Li: Why I joined Radical Ventures." https://radical.vc/fei-fei-li-why-i-joined-radical-ventures/