Good day. Venture investors like to say they are sticking to their strategy fund after fund. Slava Rubin and Cyrus Massoumi, however, saw their first fund more as an experiment. What they learned led to an evolution of their strategy.

The founders of Miami venture firm Humbition switched things up for their $45 million second fund. With this pool, which held a final close in January, they are writing very early checks into artificial-intelligence and deeptech startups around the country and the world, Rubin said. 

That’s quite different from their generalist $30 million debut fund launched in 2018 that focused on New York deals, Rubin said.

Prior to Humbition, Rubin co-founded crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, while Massoumi co-founded online doctor-appointments service Zocdoc. They were also active angel investors.

Humbition 2 has backed nine portfolio companies thus far, including defense-tech startups Wild West Systems and Uforce and Bonus Health, a provider of voice-based healthcare services.

We spoke with Rubin about the deeptech market and why Humbition has changed its approach. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

WSJ Pro: You were focused on New York at first. Why did you broaden that out?

Rubin: We thought that having a physical focus would cut through the noise and be better for our messaging for both LPs and entrepreneurs and at first we followed that. The more we did it, the more we realized this isn’t what’s important. What’s important is having unique access to these entrepreneurs. I’m still bullish on New York.

WSJ Pro: Why did you dive into deeptech?

Rubin: We saw the evolution even in our Fund I of robotics and AI companies. We love finding that mad scientist type, some really complicated technology that can be differentiated. So Fund II is really [about] us doubling down on what worked best in Fund I and our angel portfolio.

AI is collapsing development timelines across robotics, defense, space and healthcare infrastructure. What used to take $50 million to build now takes $5 million. The combination of cheaper infrastructure and real demand is making deeptech investable at early stages in a way it just wasn't 10 years ago.

WSJ Pro: How do you deal with the capital-intensity risk in deeptech?

Rubin: We try to get in super early when it’s all about team and dream, and hopefully it’s not too expensive. Deeptech can indeed be capital-intensive, but it should not be capital-inefficient. Every round needs to de-risk something specific—technical validation, commercial demand, regulatory progress, manufacturing or partnerships.

And now on to the news...

Early winners. OpenAI allowed employees to sell up to $30 million worth of shares each in a recent financing, making them some of the earliest financial winners of the artificial-intelligence boom. Last October, more than 600 current and former employees sold their shares in a single stroke, collectively making $6.6 billion. For roughly 75 of them, that meant walking away with the full $30 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

• OpenAI required employees to wait two years before they could sell their shares, meaning that the share sale marked the first time many who joined the company after ChatGPT launched were able to cash out.

OnlyFans, the online platform popular with adult-content creators, has agreed to sell a minority stake to an American investment firm in a deal that values the business at $3.15 billion. Under the terms of the deal announced Friday, Architect Capital will buy a 16% stake in the U.K.-based company for $535 million. The transaction caps months of talks about a potential investment, and comes less than two months after OnlyFans owner Leo Radvinsky died from cancer.

The rapid acceleration of AI in border-security technology hit a fever pitch over the past year, bringing new competitors into the industry and offering a new vision of what surveillance and border enforcement looks like. The Trump administration has made border security and immigration enforcement its top priority, and vendors have been eager to secure funding and contracts before political winds shift.

Correction: Sangeen Zeb is a general partner at GV. The Deal Talk feature in Friday’s newsletter incorrectly gave his last name as Geb.

Funds

Mother Ventures, a venture-capital firm focused on the mother-as-consumer sector, closed its inaugural fund at $10 million.

Ethos, a London-based startup using AI to showcase human expertise based on career history, scored nearly $22.8 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Basata, a Phoenix-based startup deploying AI agents that automate healthcare administrative workflows, picked up a $21 million Series A round led by Basis Set Ventures.

Illoca, a San Ramon, Calif.-based AI-native design engine for architects, closed a $13 million seed round. Bessemer Venture Partners led the investment, which included participation from AIX Ventures, Root Ventures and Alt Ventures.

ParcelBio, a San Francisco-based startup developing a new class of mRNA medicines, secured $13 million in seed funding. Breyer Capital led the round, which included contributions from General Catalyst, Y Combinator, SurgePoint Capital and others.

Balcony, a Hoboken, N.J.-based startup building data infrastructure for the U.S. property market, nabbed $12.7 million in seed funding led by Blockchange Ventures.

CodeWords, a London-based provider of AI agents for nontechnical teams, landed a $9 million seed investment led by Visionaries.

XCaliber Health, an agentic operating system for healthcare organizations, was seeded with a $6.5 million investment led by ManchesterStory.

• Meet Anthropic’s ‘Perfect Wingman’ for Its Race Against OpenAI

• Cerebras Plans to Go Public Thursday

• Apple, Intel Have Reached Preliminary Chip-Making Agreement

• Typing Is Being Replaced by Whispering—and It’s Way More Annoying

• AI Can’t Agree on Which Jobs AI Might Destroy

• A Blunt Judge and Two Star Litigators: The Legal Players in Musk’s OpenAI Suit

• For Palantir, AI Is a Product, a Punching Bag—and a Problem

• Walking Slower? Why Your Ears, Not Your Knees, Might Be the Problem

   

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

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