Firms

Basis Set Ventures

San Francisco, California, US

basisset.com

signal.nfx.com

goldi.ai

AI-focused early-stage venture firm founded in 2017. Official FAQ describes pre-seed through Series A, with typical USD1–3million checks and wider exceptions; this FAQ still references FundIII and is historical policy evidence. Dated January26,2026 announcement establishes USD250million FundIV raised without verifying revised check limits or current AUM.

Founded: 2017
Type: Venture capital

Funds4

Fund IV2026-01-262026-01-26$250M
FounderexplicitUSD250mraised; latestknownfund; legalfinalcloseunknown.
Fund III2024-02-012024-02-01$185M
Raisedlate2023, publicreport1Feb2024; notnew2024closingday.
Fund II2021-04-222021-04-22$165M
ClosedUSD165msecondfundhistorical.
Basis Set Ventures Fund I20172017$136M
Firm introduced its first USD 136 million fund in 2017.

Team

John Mannes Basis Set Ventures, partner	$3M$1M – $5M	San Francisco, California
Lan Xuezhao Basis Set Ventures, managing_partner	$2M$1M – $5M	San Francisco, California
Sheila Vashee Basis Set Ventures, Partner	$2M$1M – $5M	San Francisco, California
Chang Xu Basis Set Ventures, partner	$2M$1M – $3M	San Francisco, California
Wilson Kyi Basis Set Ventures, partner	$2M$1M – $3M	San Francisco, California
Catherine Stewart Basis Set Ventures, Venture Partner	—— – —
Dr. Lan Xuezhao Basis Set Ventures, Founder & Partner	—— – —
Fahad Noor Basis Set Ventures, Staff Engineer	—— – —
Ingrid Chen Basis Set Ventures, Controller & Partner	—— – —
Javier Fernandez Basis Set Ventures, Brand Designer	—— – —
JB Michel Basis Set Ventures, Venture Partner	—— – —
Jennifer Lee Basis Set Ventures, General Counsel & Partner	—— – —
Lisa Chen Basis Set Ventures, Operations Manager	—— – —
Muhammad Ammad Basis Set Ventures, Staff Engineer	—— – —
Rachel Wong Basis Set Ventures, CTO & Partner	—— – —
Sebastien Boyer Basis Set Ventures, Venture Partner	—— – —

Investments

team@apexlogos.ai1 hour ago
Investment-fund research reviewed 2026-10-06. Publicly identified funds, dates, amounts and fundraising status are below. Undisclosed commitments remain unknown; this is not a complete register of private SPVs or parallel entities. Fund size and status | Vehicle | Amount and status | Evidence and date | |---|---|---| | Fund IV | USD 250 million raised; latest-known fund located, not merely a target | Founder Lan Xuezhao's [official announcement](https://www.basisset.com/insights/announcing-our-250m-fund-iv), January 26, 2026, explicitly says the capital was raised. [Dealroom reporting](https://dealroom.co/news/125046-basis-set-ventures-closes-250m-fund-iv-to-back-early-stage-ai-startups/), January 29, 2026, describes a close. | | Fund III | USD 185 million; raised in late 2023, publicly reported in early 2024 | [Newcomer](https://www.newcomer.co/p/exclusive-basis-set-raises-185-million), February 1, 2024, reports Lan's statement that the then-unannounced third fund was raised late the previous year. The visible article introduction supports this; the remaining article is paywalled. | | Fund II | USD 165 million closed | [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/22/at-basis-set-ventures-merging-venture-capital-and-software-development-yields-a-165-million-new-fund/), April 22, 2021. Newcomer also confirms the 2021 predecessor amount. | The [official FAQ](https://www.basisset.com/basis-set-faq) (undated; accessed 2026-10-06) still describes approximately USD 600 million AUM across three funds and active deployment from the USD 185 million third fund. This is stale relative to the dated Fund IV announcement. Retain it only as a historical self-report: USD 600 million AUM is not a single fund, and adding Fund IV mechanically does not verify current AUM. No newer Fund V announcement was located in the searches checked. Fund IV legal final-close date, vehicle-level SEC confirmation and current AUM remain unverified. Additional verified fund-history sources checked in this review: - Basis Set Ventures Fund I: USD 136000000. Firm introduced its first USD 136 million fund in 2017. [Source](https://medium.com/basis-set-ventures/announcing-basis-set-ventures-524efc85e7b9). Funds recorded in Adex after this review: | Fund | Disclosed amount | Announcement / filing date | | --- | --- | --- | | Basis Set Ventures Fund I | USD 136000000 | 2017 | | Fund II | USD 165000000 | 2021-04-22 | | Fund III | USD 185000000 | 2024-02-01 | | Fund IV | USD 250000000 | 2026-01-26 |
team@apexlogos.ai2 hours ago
Match research 2026-10-06 / BasisSetVentures / sha256:951125b8789b691054a33b8778e25aad436179595ed35ed0311f439bc1fa8ef6 / part 2 of 2 Imported completed research. Baseline Adex/Signal statements describe prior state, not independent verification. Retain cited attribution, date, currency and classification caveats. The listed portfolio entries demonstrate firm attribution, not just a partner's prior employment or personal investment. Scale is deliberately excluded from the verified firm-round table: the Fund IV announcement dates its backing to 2016 before the fund formally existed. The legal investing entity for that early exposure requires separate evidence. Elicit, Tigris, Mem0, OpenArt and ordinary AI workflow businesses should not all be classified deep tech automatically: evaluate proprietary technical R&D individually. The snapshot's Neion and Valius Sciences claims are additional biotechnology/diagnostic leads, but their underlying rounds were not verified in this focused pass. ## Neurotech assessment **No verified neurotech investment found in the sources checked.** Checked the Adex snapshot, directly readable Signal profile, official portfolio and FAQ, the official company entries above, and targeted searches pairing the exact firm name with neurotech, neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces, brain and Neuralink. No named direct neural interface, neural recording/stimulation or brain-specific therapeutic-device investment was substantiated. This is a coverage-limited finding, not a claim that none exists. Sakana's bio-inspired models and CuspAI's AI research are not neural devices or brain treatments. Nuro is vehicle autonomy. Seen Health is described in the portfolio as senior care, and Basata as healthcare administration, not neurotech. Lan Xuezhao's psychology/science background and the firm's minds-and-machines branding do not demonstrate neurotech investment. Search results for **Bas1s Ventures** (`bas1s.ventures`) showing Neuralink are a different firm and must not be merged with Basis Set Ventures. ## Conflicts, missing information and later Adex review - Prioritize the dated USD 250 million Fund IV announcement over the stale FAQ's Fund III deployment/AUM statement. Keep fund size, AUM, entire financing rounds and investor check sizes distinct. - Review stage breadth: official FAQ includes pre-seed; Signal/Adex describes seed/Series A. Check sizes are qualified policy descriptions rather than a hard minimum/maximum. - Preserve Sakana's 2023 investment year separately from its January 2024 seed announcement. - Review Ike/Nuro attribution and company naming before linking rounds. The portfolio page's founders are Ike founders despite its Nuro heading. - Adex has duplicate-looking participation/company records, including Rutter/Rutterapi, Spice/Spice AI, Quill Meetings/Quill Notes, Basata/Basata Ai, and OpenArt/OpenArt AI, plus repeated Elicit, Dynamo AI and Quince rows. Similar names need round- and legal-entity checks before merging. - Some snapshot rows store a whole reported round amount in `amount` while `roundAmount` is null. Do not reinterpret these as the firm's contribution. - Role duplication (`DrLanXuezhao`/`LanXuezhao` and duplicate Sheila Vashee entries) and imported historical affiliations need review against the current team before changing people records. - This is focused field research, not an exhaustive audit of all 64 imported participations. Current AUM, Fund IV final legal close, exact firm check contributions and neurotech portfolio completeness remain missing. All undated web pages above were accessed 2026-10-06. No Adex/database writes were performed.
team@apexlogos.ai2 hours ago
Match research 2026-10-06 / BasisSetVentures / sha256:951125b8789b691054a33b8778e25aad436179595ed35ed0311f439bc1fa8ef6 / part 1 of 2 Imported completed research. Baseline Adex/Signal statements describe prior state, not independent verification. Retain cited attribution, date, currency and classification caveats. # Basis Set Ventures - Exact Adex ID: `BasisSetVentures` - Canonical Adex URL: https://adex.page/firms/BasisSetVentures - Research date: 2026-10-06 - Completion: research complete for the requested fields; limitations below remain explicit. Basis Set is an AI-focused early-stage venture firm founded in 2017. Its strongest verified deep-tech precedents include industrial and agricultural robotics, autonomous driving, AI materials discovery and foundation-model research. The latest fund found is USD 250 million Fund IV, announced January 26, 2026. No verified neurotech investment found in the sources checked. ## Adex and NFX Signal starting evidence The saved exact-ID record `data/research/_sources/BasisSetVentures.adex.json` was retrieved October 6, 2026 at 19:29:44 UTC through read-only Adex MCP Search. It describes seed/Series A investing, typical USD 1–3 million checks, enterprise infrastructure, collaboration, workflow automation and autonomous machines. Its investor-profile check fields are null. It contains 64 participation rows, including repeated companies and ambiguous attribution, and roles for Lan Xuezhao, John Mannes, Chang Xu, Sheila Vashee, Rachel Wong and others. These are research leads, not independent verification. The snapshot includes Path Robotics, Ike, CuspAI, Elicit, Dynamo AI and biologics-manufacturing company Neion, alongside many ordinary software businesses. [NFX Signal firm profile](https://signal.nfx.com/firms/basis-set-ventures) was directly read, not merely search-indexed (undated; accessed 2026-10-06). It repeats the early-stage AI description, seed/Series A, typical USD 1–3 million checks, 2017 founding and San Francisco location. It supplies co-investor links, but the readable firm page does not substantiate a current fund amount or individual investment rounds. The baseline records membership of the [Signal DeepTech Pre-Seed list](https://signal.nfx.com/investor-lists/top-deeptech-pre-seed-investors); that imported listing was not independently revalidated and does not establish an exclusive deep-tech mandate. The near-identical Signal and Adex language should be treated as potentially shared-source evidence. ## Fund size and status | Vehicle | Amount and status | Evidence and date | |---|---|---| | Fund IV | USD 250 million raised; latest-known fund located, not merely a target | Founder Lan Xuezhao's [official announcement](https://www.basisset.com/insights/announcing-our-250m-fund-iv), January 26, 2026, explicitly says the capital was raised. [Dealroom reporting](https://dealroom.co/news/125046-basis-set-ventures-closes-250m-fund-iv-to-back-early-stage-ai-startups/), January 29, 2026, describes a close. | | Fund III | USD 185 million; raised in late 2023, publicly reported in early 2024 | [Newcomer](https://www.newcomer.co/p/exclusive-basis-set-raises-185-million), February 1, 2024, reports Lan's statement that the then-unannounced third fund was raised late the previous year. The visible article introduction supports this; the remaining article is paywalled. | | Fund II | USD 165 million closed | [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/22/at-basis-set-ventures-merging-venture-capital-and-software-development-yields-a-165-million-new-fund/), April 22, 2021. Newcomer also confirms the 2021 predecessor amount. | The [official FAQ](https://www.basisset.com/basis-set-faq) (undated; accessed 2026-10-06) still describes approximately USD 600 million AUM across three funds and active deployment from the USD 185 million third fund. This is stale relative to the dated Fund IV announcement. Retain it only as a historical self-report: USD 600 million AUM is not a single fund, and adding Fund IV mechanically does not verify current AUM. No newer Fund V announcement was located in the searches checked. Fund IV legal final-close date, vehicle-level SEC confirmation and current AUM remain unverified. ## Investment stages and check sizes The official FAQ explicitly supports **pre-seed through Series A**, typically leading or co-leading pre-seed/seed. It gives a broad check range from a few hundred thousand dollars to over USD 9 million, with typical USD 1–3 million checks and 10–15% ownership. This refines the narrower Signal/Adex seed/Series A description. The FAQ's fund-status paragraph is stale, so do not automatically assume every check parameter was reissued for Fund IV. The January 2026 official fund announcement supports first-capital investing and long-term involvement without defining precise check limits. Dealroom's January 29, 2026 article reports typical initial USD 2–3 million and up to USD 10 million checks; this is newer secondary evidence rather than an official revised policy. Historical follow-on rounds do not establish a growth-stage entry mandate. ## Verified previous deep-tech investments | Company | Technical rationale and firm attribution | Supported stage/date and source | |---|---|---| | Path Robotics (official site shortens to Path) | Autonomous robotic welding; computer vision creates per-part 3D models and adapts robot paths without manual programming. Basis Set's own portfolio identifies it as a firm investment. | **Seed, 2018**, [official portfolio entry](https://www.basisset.com/portfolio-companies/path), undated, accessed 2026-10-06. Round amount not specified there. The firm also participated in the **USD 100 million October 2024 round**, per [Axios Pro Rata](https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-pro-rata-ad053bec-2e36-4b54-87d2-21b72fbdaf3d), October 15, 2024. That amount is the whole round, not Basis Set's check; this source does not label its stage. | | CuspAI (Cusp) | AI and machine-learning models for scientific materials discovery, including carbon capture and energy; a research-intensive materials platform rather than routine enterprise SaaS. Basis Set's portfolio and CuspAI's investor logos independently identify the relationship. | **Seed, 2024**, [official Basis Set entry](https://www.basisset.com/portfolio-companies/cusp), undated, accessed 2026-10-06; [CuspAI official site](https://cusp.ai/), undated, accessed 2026-10-06. These directly read primary pages do not establish a specific seed announcement day or Basis Set check. Snapshot claims June 18, 2024 seed and September 10, 2025 Series A; the latter needs round-level attribution before updating. | | Sakana AI | Research into new nature-inspired foundation models, evolution and collective intelligence; qualifies as core AI R&D. “Nature-inspired” does not make this direct neurotechnology. | **USD 30 million seed announced January 16, 2024**, [official investee announcement](https://sakana.ai/seed-round/), names Basis Set Ventures among participants. [Basis Set portfolio](https://www.basisset.com/portfolio-companies/sakana), undated, accessed 2026-10-06, labels its investment seed **2023**. Preserve both dates: investment year may precede public round announcement; do not invent a closing date. Lux Capital led, not Basis Set. | | FarmWise | Robotics, computer vision and precision equipment that weeds individual plants; physical-world agricultural automation. Official portfolio directly attributes the investment to Basis Set. | **Seed, 2017**, [official portfolio entry](https://www.basisset.com/portfolio-companies/farmwise), undated, accessed 2026-10-06. [Global Venturing](https://globalventuring.com/blog/2019/09/19/wilbur-ellis-picks-out-farmwise-for-series-a/), September 19, 2019, identifies Basis Set in the December 2017 **USD 5.7 million seed**. Its 2019 Series A report lists some existing backers without naming Basis Set there; do not infer that follow-on solely from this article. | | Ike, subsequently acquired by Nuro | Self-driving trucking software and autonomy systems. This is a historical direct Ike investment, with later exposure/portfolio presentation under Nuro; not evidence of neurotech despite the name. | [Official Basis Set entry at `/ike`](https://www.basisset.com/portfolio-companies/ike), undated, accessed 2026-10-06, now titled Nuro, labels seed **2019** and explicitly explains Nuro acquired portfolio company Ike in December 2020. Preserve the Ike identity for the original investment. A Nuro-branded page is not sufficient to infer a separate direct Nuro funding round. |
team@apexlogos.ai22 days ago
MATCH

$—2026-06-09	Orbital Inc.	Basis Set Ventures
$21M2026-05-08	Basata	Basis Set Ventures, Victoria Treyger
$15M2026-04-02	Daydream	Basis Set Ventures, First Round
$—2026-03-11	Quince	ICONIQ Capital, Basis Set Ventures
$50M2026-02-25	Rowspace	Sequoia, Emergence Capital, Basis Set Ventures, Stripe, Conviction Partners, Twine Ventures, Darian Shirazi
$60M2026-02-10	Entire	Felicis, Basis Set Ventures, Aydin Senkut
$500M2026	Quince	Basis Set Ventures, ICONIQ Capital
$—2026	OpenArt	Basis Set Ventures
$—2025-12-16	DataLane	Amplify Partners, Basis Set Ventures
$21M2025-12-02	Simular	Felicis, Basis Set Ventures
$—2025-11-06	Flint	Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures, Afore Capital, Patron
$24M2025-10-29	Mem0	Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Kindred Ventures, GitHub Fund
$100M2025-09-10	CuspAI	Basis Set Ventures, Northzone, Mandeep Singh
$—2025-07-22	Quince	8VC, Basis Set Ventures, ICONIQ Capital
$2M2025-04-14	Octolane AI	Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, eCAPITAL Entrepreneurial Partners AG, General Catalyst, Basis Set Ventures
$—2025	Tigris Data	Andreessen Horowitz, Basis Set Ventures
$22M2024-11-18	Seen Health	Basis Set Ventures, Sebastian Caliri
$100M2024-10-15	Path Robotics	Basis Set Ventures
$—2024-07-23	Momentum	Basis Set Ventures
$—2024-07-10	Beeble	Basis Set Ventures
$—2024-06-30	Norm Ai	Basis Set Ventures
$30M2024-06-18	CuspAI	Lightspeed, Hoxton Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, Giant Ventures, Working Capital Fund, Tiferes Ventures, Northzone, Zero Prime Ventures, Lan Xuezhao, Michiel Kotting
$—2024-01-23	Norm Ai	Basis Set Ventures
$12M2024-01-18	Recraft	Khosla Ventures, Abstract Ventures, RTP Global, Basis Set Ventures, GitHub Fund, Nikita Shamgunov
$30M2024-01-16	Sakana AI	Lux Capital, Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures, Brandon Reeves, Basis Set Ventures
$—2024	Echo Labs	Basis Set Ventures
$—2024	Talofa Games	Andreessen Horowitz, Basis Set Ventures
$300K2024	Nowadays	Y Combinator, Decacorn Capital, Basis Set Ventures, SBXi, Underdog Labs
$25M2023-09-26	Series	Basis Set Ventures, Day One Ventures, Pear VC, Mario Gabriele, Annelies Gamble
$—2023-09-25	Elicit	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon, Basis Set Ventures
$—2022-10-01	Trendsi	Lightspeed, Sierra Ventures, Peterson Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, Footwork
$4M2022-09-20	Dynamo AI	Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures
$—2022-08-25	ViaVia	Basis Set Ventures
$15M2022-05-04	Allocate	Basis Set Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners
$—2022-03-15	Rutterapi	Basis Set Ventures
$27M2022-03-15	Rutter	Y Combinator, Haystack, Basis Set Ventures, Mischief, Jim Lanzone, Lan Xuezhao
$—2022	Spice AI	Basis Set Ventures
$3M2021-10-01	Orchest	Basis Set Ventures, Gradient Ventures
$4M2021-08-26	Playbook	Founders Fund, Abstract Ventures, BACKED VC, Inovia Capital, WS Investment Company, Maple VC, Basis Set Ventures
$5M2021-07-22	Allocate	Basis Set Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners
$—2021-05-03	Path Robotics	Basis Set Ventures
$16M2021-03-12	Assembled	Basis Set Ventures, Felicis
$30M2021-03-10	DataGrail	Felicis, Basis Set Ventures, Victoria Treyger
$8M2020-10-12	Quince	Founders Fund, 8VC, Basis Set Ventures
$10M2020-09-28	Snappr	Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures
$10M2020-05-07	WorkStream	Founders Fund, CRV, Basis Set Ventures, Lattice, Zoom Video Communications, DoorDash, Lattice, Anna Khan, Chang Xu, Lan Xuezhao, Keith Rabois
$—2019-07-31	Cognition IP	Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures, Mayfield Fund
$52M2019-02-05	Ike	Bain Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, Basis Set Ventures, Neo
$5M2018-06-19	Falkonry	Basis Set Ventures, Zetta Venture Partners, Mark Gorenberg, Lan Xuezhao
$7M2017-07-19	Clara Labs	Sequoia, The Slack Fund, First Round Capital, Basis Set Ventures, First Round, Lan Xuezhao
$5MUnknown date	Farmwise	Playground Global, Basis Set Ventures
$—Unknown date	Gravity	Basis Set Ventures
$—Unknown date	BNTO	Basis Set Ventures
$15MUnknown date	Flint	Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures, Afore Capital, Patron
$10MUnknown date	Synthetic	Khosla Ventures, Basis Set Ventures
$4MUnknown date	Dynamo AI	Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures
$22MUnknown date	Elicit	Fifty Years, Basis Set Ventures, Spark Capital, Footwork
$13MUnknown date	Valius Sciences	Compound, 8VC, Basis Set Ventures
$—2026-06-11	Neion	Basis Set Ventures
$—2026-02-25	Quill Meetings	Basis Set Ventures
$—2025-04-28	Cheehoo Labs, Inc.	Basis Set Ventures
$—2022-09-08	Spice	Basis Set Ventures
$—2021-11-02	Whimsical	Accel, Basis Set Ventures
$—Unknown date	Teal Dev	Basis Set Ventures
$—Unknown date	Quill Notes	Basis Set Ventures
$—Unknown date	OpenArt AI, Inc.	Basis Set Ventures
$—Unknown date	Basata Ai	Basis Set Ventures

Funds4

Team

Co-investing

Investments