At a Glance
Radical Ventures is a Toronto-based venture capital firm founded in 2017 that exclusively focuses on artificial intelligence investments. The firm was co-founded by Jordan Jacobs, Tomi Poutanen, and notably backed by Geoffrey Hinton, widely regarded as the 'godfather of deep learning' and a Turing Award winner. This unique connection to AI research royalty gives Radical Ventures unprecedented access to cutting-edge AI research and talent emerging from top universities and research institutions. The firm invests across all stages from seed to growth, but maintains strict criteria that portfolio companies must be fundamentally built on applied AI rather than simply using AI as a feature. Radical Ventures has backed companies like Cohere, which develops large language models for enterprises, and Waabi, an autonomous vehicle company founded by former Uber ATG chief scientist Raquel Urtasun. The firm's strategy leverages Canada's strong AI research ecosystem, including partnerships with institutions like the Vector Institute. Radical Ventures provides portfolio companies not only with capital but also with access to world-class AI research talent and technical expertise that is difficult to replicate elsewhere in the venture capital landscape.
“Exclusively invests in companies built on applied artificial intelligence, leveraging deep connections to AI research community to identify breakthrough technologies.”
Radical Ventures primarily invests at the Seed, Series A, Series B+ stages. This means they focus on companies that are building their initial product and finding product-market fit.
Radical Ventures is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Many of their portfolio companies are also based in this region, though they invest across geographies.
Radical Ventures focuses on investments in AI. Their portfolio reflects deep expertise and networks within these sectors.
Radical Ventures manages approximately $650M in assets under management (AUM) across their funds.