HomeAshton Kutcher exits Sound Ventures, co-founds new VC firm with Morgan Beller
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures—the firm he co-founded with Guy Oseary 11 years ago—to launch his own venture capital fund. The actor and investor's new firm will be co-founded with Morgan Beller, who until recently served as a general partner at seed-focused VC firm NFX and previously co-led Meta’s cryptocurrency project Libra. Beller also spent nearly three years as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
TechCrunch previously reported that Kutcher was preparing to leave; the WSJ's story confirms this and adds more detail about his plans with Beller. The name of the new firm has not yet been announced.
Kutcher's departure does not seem to indicate trouble at Sound Ventures—investors often leave underperforming firms, but that is not the case here. The firm, which has backed companies like Brex and Gusto, was also an early investor in OpenAI, Anthropic, and Fei-Fei Li's World Labs.
The separation is also notable for what it suggests about where AI investment is heading: Sound built its reputation on concentrated, high-conviction bets in category-leading AI labs, while Kutcher's new fund appears to focus on the layer beneath those companies—the infrastructure and energy that power them.
"He and his fund consistently make it onto [my] rankings of top unicorn investors. An interesting case!" wrote Stanford finance professor Ilya Strebulaev, who tracks top-performing VCs, on X.
The actor has known OpenAI's Sam Altman since Altman founded Loopt—years before the launch of the ChatGPT maker.
According to the WSJ, Kutcher's departure was partly due to different views on which startup stages to target for investments, with Sound leaning toward backing companies that are already more established rather than betting on very early-stage startups.
Kutcher and Beller are focusing on early-stage investments in AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech startups—companies built around hard science and engineering breakthroughs rather than software alone.
Despite leaving Sound Ventures, Kutcher will continue to serve as an adviser to the firm. Meanwhile, Oseary and Sound general partner Effie Epstein will advise Kutcher and Beller's new firm.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures—the firm he co-founded with Guy Oseary 11 years ago—to launch his own venture capital fund. The actor and investor's new firm will be co-founded with Morgan Beller, who until recently served as a general partner at seed-focused VC firm NFX and previously co-led Meta’s cryptocurrency project Libra. Beller also spent nearly three years as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
TechCrunch previously reported that Kutcher was preparing to leave; the WSJ's story confirms this and adds more detail about his plans with Beller. The name of the new firm has not yet been announced.
Kutcher's departure does not seem to indicate trouble at Sound Ventures—investors often leave underperforming firms, but that is not the case here. The firm, which has backed companies like Brex and Gusto, was also an early investor in OpenAI, Anthropic, and Fei-Fei Li's World Labs.
The separation is also notable for what it suggests about where AI investment is heading: Sound built its reputation on concentrated, high-conviction bets in category-leading AI labs, while Kutcher's new fund appears to focus on the layer beneath those companies—the infrastructure and energy that power them.
"He and his fund consistently make it onto [my] rankings of top unicorn investors. An interesting case!" wrote Stanford finance professor Ilya Strebulaev, who tracks top-performing VCs, on X.
The actor has known OpenAI's Sam Altman since Altman founded Loopt—years before the launch of the ChatGPT maker.
According to the WSJ, Kutcher's departure was partly due to different views on which startup stages to target for investments, with Sound leaning toward backing companies that are already more established rather than betting on very early-stage startups.
Kutcher and Beller are focusing on early-stage investments in AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech startups—companies built around hard science and engineering breakthroughs rather than software alone.
Despite leaving Sound Ventures, Kutcher will continue to serve as an adviser to the firm. Meanwhile, Oseary and Sound general partner Effie Epstein will advise Kutcher and Beller's new firm.
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