Former a16z Partner Bryan Kim Launches $100M Mido Capital Fund for Consumer AI Startups

Ex-a16z partner raises $100m for consumer AI

A star investor behind ElevenLabs is leaving Andreessen Horowitz to raise his own fund. At about $100m it is small by today's standards, and pointed at the corner of AI most venture money has cooled on: consumers. Bryan Kim, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz, is setting up a new firm, Mido Capital. He plans to raise around $100m for its first fund, the Wall Street Journal reported. He filed formation papers in Delaware last month. The debut fund will back early-stage consumer AI and other startups. Kim did not comment. Kim spent more than five years at the firm, on its consumer and AI-apps team. His standout bet was ElevenLabs, the voice-AI company. Andreessen co-led its Series A and B rounds, and it has grown into one of the category's biggest names. He also backed Function Health, the invitations app Partiful and mental-health startup SlingshotAI. Before venture, he worked at Snap. A contrarian corner of AI Consumer AI is a narrow slice of the boom. Roughly 12% of about 26,000 AI and machine-learning companies are consumer-facing, according to PitchBook. And the money has been oddly flat. Strip out OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, and investors put $17.5bn into consumer-AI startups last year, up just 3.6% on 2024. The category also lives in OpenAI's shadow. ChatGPT and a handful of platforms dominate how most people meet AI, so smaller apps struggle to stand out. Kim's wager is that the interesting companies are not the ones trying to be OpenAI. They are the ones building on cheap, abundant intelligence rather than racing to supply it. Small fund, crowded moment The timing is pointed. The biggest firms are raising billions for AI, and a new crop of smaller funds is chasing the same founders. Kim's $100m is modest against that, a focused bet rather than a landgrab. It also joins a steady drift of partners leaving big firms to run their own money. When he announced his exit in April, Kim thanked a16z's "consumer AI gang" and struck the founder's note. "It is simply time to build. Now it's time to paddle hard," he wrote. His backers must now weigh whether a lean, consumer-first fund can beat the giants at the next consumer-facing hit.

Former a16z partner to raise $100m as debut fund for new venture firm

Bryan Kim filed formation documents for his new venture Mido last month, according to a regulatory filing. First reported by the WSJ, former partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Bryan Kim, has announced plans to raise roughly $100m for the debut fund of his new venture, Mido Capital. Kim reportedly filed documentation for Mido in Delaware, during July and the first fund intends to invest in early-stage consumer AI and other companies, according to individuals familiar with the details. In a post on LinkedIn, three months ago, Kim announced that after five years he would be leaving a16z to start his own fund and that it was the toughest career-based decision he has made to date. He said, "I learned from the best partners and was privileged to work with incredible founders. So why leave? It is simply time to build. More to come on this. We are still so early in the AI revolution. "Abundant intelligence will fundamentally reshape what creators, consumers, and coders can do and compress the gap between individuals and institutions in ways we've never seen. It's a unique moment in history and I want to be fully in it." He thanked his co-workers and clients before adding, "Now it's time to paddle hard. I'll be spending the next few days calling many of you who made my life at a16z so special. And I'm beyond excited to earn the right to work with the next generation of the most ambitious founders building for the people." Kim's main area of expertise is consumer tech and artificial-intelligence deals. Among Kim's other ventures is AI company ElevenLabs, with a16z co-leading its Series A and B rounds. Kim has also invested in Function Health, which offers lab tests to consumers, online-invitations business Partiful and mental health AI platform SlingshotAI. In April of this year, Ulysses, founded in Dublin by Akhil Voorakkara, Will O'Brien, Jamie Wedderburn and Colm O'Brien announced newly acquired funding will be used to build "the Ocean company". A $38m Series A round was led by a16z. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.