Jump Capital, the venture capital firm backed by the founders of quant-trading firm Jump Trading, has raised a new fund of $350 million, Jump Capital co-founder and partner Sach Chitnis told me. The Chicago-based firm will use the new money to expand its investments in AI startups. The fund is the same size as its last vehicle raised in 2021, which had focused heavily on crypto. Later that year, Jump Capital spun off its crypto team to Jump Crypto, the digital assets arm of Jump Trading. While the crypto market has entered into another downturn, one of Jump Capital’s portfolio companies, BitGo, went public this year at a $2 billion valuation.
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Jump Capital, the venture capital firm backed by the founders of quant-trading firm Jump Trading, has raised a new fund of $350 million, Jump Capital co-founder and partner Sach Chitnis told me. The Chicago-based firm will use the new money to expand its investments in AI startups.
The fund is the same size as its last vehicle raised in 2021, which hadfocused heavily on crypto.Later that year, Jump Capitalspun off its crypto team to Jump Crypto, the digital assets arm of Jump Trading. While the crypto market has entered into another downturn, one of Jump Capital’s portfolio companies, BitGo, went public this year at a $2 billion valuation.
These days, Jump Capital invests in early-stage firms in AI applications, infrastructure and cybersecurity, writing check sizes of either $1 million to $4 million or $8 million to $15 million.
Earlier this year, it led a $35 million investment in AI-driven compensation startup Compa, and led a $20 million investment in Standard Kernel, a startup that automates GPU software. Last year, it invested in TrueFoundry, a gateway for AI models, a hot area as more companies turn to such platforms to identify the best and cheapest models.
The firm wants to capture “leapfrog moments in legacy industries” because of AI transformation, said Chitnis.
Founded in 2012, Jump Capital raises most of its money from Paul Gurinas and Bill Disomma, former pit traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange who founded Jump Trading in 1999. The VC firm, which also counts Jump Trading employees as limited partners, currently has a 15-person investment team split between Chicago and New York and is looking to hire more staff.
It operates as a separate entity from Jump Trading, which uses its balance sheet to invest in startups, typically focusing on companies that are strategic to the firm. For example, last year, Jump Trading co-led an investment with DRW, another trading firm, in Silicon Data, an index provider for GPU rental prices. Such indexes are set to be used in an emerging asset class called compute futures trading.
Jump Capital invests in a wider range of sectors than Jump Trading. “There are moments where we collaborate tremendously. There are times that we diverge in investments,” said Chitnis.
One area that has piqued his interest is small-language models that can work on a smartphone. Chitnis is also interested in how AI can be applied in professional services industries, as well as how AI can affect enterprise cybersecurity.
The firm spends a lot of time talking to potential buyers of the tech and founders.
“The majority of our investments are actually flipped, where we have a perspective on a category or an area, and then we go hunt for that founder,” said Chitnis.
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