INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
One year after receiving a whopping $75 million commitment to invest in early stage companies applying artificial intelligence to various
industries, Glasswing Ventures has closed its debut fund with $112 million.
It a significant milestone for a firm that purports to be the
largest early stage investor focused on machine learning on the East Coast, and one of the largest early stage funds to be led by
women.
Founded by Rudina Seseri alongside her longtime investing partner Rick Grinnell and bolstered by the addition of former portfolio
executive Sarah Fay, Glasswing so far has invested in three startups: BotChain (a company spun up from Glasswing early investment in the AI
management company, Talla); Allure Security, a threat detection company; and Terbium Labs, whose service alerts companies when sensitive or
stolen information of theirs appears on the Internet.
For Seseri and Glasswing, the close is actually just the beginning
As she said in a statement:
&Raising an AI-focused fund on the East Coast is just the beginning for Glasswing Ventures
As we embark onajourney to shape the future, we are laser-focused on investing in exceptional founders who leverage AI to build disruptive
companies and transform markets
Beyond providing smart capital, we are firmly committed to supporting our entrepreneurs with all facets of building and scaling their
businesses.&
The story, for Seseri and her co-founder Grinnell actually begins nearly a decade ago at the venture firm Fairhaven Capital,
the rebranded investment arm of the TD Bank Group.
At the time of the firm launch in 2016, Glasswing was targeting $150 million for its
first fund, with a 2.5% management fee and 20% carried interest (pretty standard terms for a venture fund), according to reporting by Dan
Primack back when he was at Fortune.
In a pitchdeck seen by Primack the firm was touting 4.25x return multiple on its investments including
6x realized and 1.8x unrealized in deals like Grinnell exit from EqualLogic (which was sold to Dell for $1.46 billion) and Seseri
investments in Jibo (which is now basically worthless) and SocialFlow (which isn&t).
Fay, who worked at a portfolio investment of
Fairhaven&s, was brought on soon after the two partners launched their new venture.
Glasswing definitely benefits from the firm proximity to
Boston stellar universities
And Seseri, a Harvard University graduate maintains close ties with the research community at both Harvard and MIT — tapping luminaries
like Tim Berners-Lee to sit on the firm advisory council for networking.
Chase Martin, Marketing and Events Manager, Emma Marty, Operations
and Support Coordinator, Rick Grinnell, Founder and Managing Partner, Rudina Seseri, Founder and Managing Partner, Sarah Fay, Managing
Director, and Andre Rocha, Investment Associate
