Ashton Kutcher Departs Sound Ventures to Team Up with Morgan Beller on Exciting New VC Firm
Ashton Kutcher is resigning from Sound Ventures, the investment firm he established alongside Guy Oseary eleven years ago, to launch a new venture capital fund. According to reports, this new initiative will be co-founded with Morgan Beller, who was formerly a general partner at the seed-focused VC firm NFX and previously played a significant role in the cryptocurrency project Libra at Meta. Beller has also held a position as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz for nearly three years.
TechCrunch had earlier indicated that Kutcher was poised for a transition, and this latest report confirms his departure while offering additional insights into his plans with Beller. The name of the new venture has yet to be publicly disclosed.
Kutcher’s decision to leave does not seem to reflect any issues at Sound Ventures. Typically, investors exit underperforming firms, but that isn’t applicable here. Sound Ventures has successfully supported companies like Brex and Gusto and was an early backer of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs.
This transition is significant as it indicates a shift in investment focus in the AI sector: Sound Ventures gained its acclaim through targeted, high-confidence investments in leading AI labs, whereas Kutcher’s new fund is anticipated to concentrate on the foundational infrastructure and resources that support these companies.
“He and his fund consistently feature on my rankings of top unicorn investors. It’s an intriguing development!” Stanford finance professor Ilya Strebulaev, who monitors leading VCs, stated on X.
Kutcher has been acquainted with Sam Altman of OpenAI since Altman established Loopt, which predates the development of ChatGPT.
Kutcher’s split was influenced by differing perspectives on investment stages, with Sound Ventures favoring investments in more established companies, unlike Kutcher’s interest in very early-stage startups, as mentioned in reports.
Together, Kutcher and Beller aim to target early-stage investments in AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech startups, particularly those founded on rigorous scientific and engineering advancements rather than exclusively on software.
Although he is leaving Sound Ventures, Kutcher will still act as an advisor for the firm. Additionally, Oseary and Sound general partner Effie Epstein will provide guidance to Kutcher and Beller’s new venture.
