I recently caught up with Ben Miller, CEO of Fundrise in person, about the Innovation Fund’s latest investments in private AI (artificial intelligence) companies.
Since launching the open-ended venture capital fund in 2H 2022, the Innovation Fund has made a series of promising AI investments that I was eager to learn more about, but unable to access.
There are two key hurdles that individual investors must overcome to be able to invest in private artificial intelligence companies:
Having enough capital to meet the minimum investment amount. Having a personal connection that will grant them the ability to invest.
Many people may have one of these prerequisites, but not everybody has both at any given time.
An Artificial Intelligence Investment That Almost Got Away
For example, I had wanted to invest in Anthropic’s latest Series F funding round, which closed in February 2024, but I couldn’t because the investment minimum was $100,000.
I didn’t have $100,000 lying around, as I had just purchased a house with cash in October 2023. With new expenses, surprise capital calls, and taxes to pay, the most I could afford to invest was up to $50,000, but preferably only $25,000.
I want to build $500,000 of exposure to private AI companies over the next three years. Having $100,000 in just one private AI company is too concentrated for my liking. What if Anthropic becomes the Lyft of ridesharing, while OpenAI becomes Uber, the dominant player?
I knew the investment minimum was $100,000 because a fellow parent had said he invested and could introduce me to a partner at Menlo Ventures, the VC leading the round. So I found myself in the situation of having the connections, but not enough capital. How frustrating.
Easier To Just Invest In The Innovation Fund
However, I then realized there was an
