OpenAI Alumni Launch Zero Shot Fund, Targeting $100 Million for AI Startups
Key Points
- Zero Shot fund founded by three OpenAI veterans—Evan Morikawa, Andrew Mayne, and Shawn Jain—plus investors Kelly Kovacs and Brett Rounsaville.
- First close secured $20 million; total fundraising goal set at $100 million.
- Early investments include Worktrace AI ($10 million seed) and Foundry Robotics ($13.5 million seed).
- A third, undisclosed startup also received backing, highlighting the fund’s stealth‑mode pipeline.
- Advisors from OpenAI’s former leadership team will help guide investment decisions.
A group of former OpenAI engineers and executives have formed Zero Shot, a venture capital fund aimed at backing the next wave of generative‑AI companies. The five partners—Evan Morikawa, Andrew Mayne, Shawn Jain, Kelly Kovacs and Brett Rounsaville—have closed an initial $20 million and plan to raise a total of $100 million. Their first checks have gone to AI‑driven management platform Worktrace AI, robotics startup Foundry Robotics and a stealth‑mode venture. Advisors from OpenAI’s former leadership team will help steer the fund as it seeks to fill gaps the founders see in the market.
Former OpenAI engineers and executives have banded together to launch Zero Shot, a venture‑capital fund that aims to raise $100 million to back early‑stage artificial‑intelligence startups. The partnership includes three OpenAI alumni—Evan Morikawa, who led applied engineering during the launch of DALL·E and ChatGPT; Andrew Mayne, the organization’s original prompt engineer and host of The OpenAI podcast; and Shawn Jain, a former researcher turned VC and founder of the generative‑AI startup Synthefy. They are joined by seasoned investors Kelly Kovacs, a founding partner at 01A, and Brett Rounsaville, a former executive at Twitter and Disney who now runs Mayne’s consulting firm Interdimensional.
According to the founders, the idea for the fund grew out of countless requests from fellow entrepreneurs and fellow investors seeking insight into the fast‑moving AI landscape. "We have a pretty good sense of where things are headed, and we have access to incredible builders," Mayne said in an interview. Their first close brought in $20 million from institutional investors and family offices, putting them on track for the $100‑million target.
Zero Shot’s inaugural investments reflect the partners’ deep technical expertise. The fund led a $10 million seed round for Worktrace AI, a platform that uses large language models to automatically discover and automate repetitive enterprise tasks. The round also featured OpenAI’s own Fund and Mira Murati. A second check went to Foundry Robotics, a company developing next‑generation, AI‑enhanced factory robots; that startup recently closed a $13.5 million seed led by Khosla Ventures. A third investment remains in stealth, signaling the partners’ willingness to back undisclosed ideas that fit their thesis.
Beyond capital, the founders bring a candid perspective on where not to invest. Morikawa expressed skepticism toward “ergo‑centric video data” companies that aim to train robots using massive video datasets, calling the approach premature. Mayne warned that many emerging low‑code coding platforms could become obsolete as model providers integrate similar capabilities directly into their APIs. Both partners stressed that predicting AI’s next breakthroughs is far from linear, emphasizing the need for hands‑on technical judgment.
Zero Shot has also enlisted a cadre of advisors from OpenAI’s former leadership, including Diane Yoon, the ex‑head of people; Steve Dowling, who led communications at both OpenAI and Apple; and Luke Miller, a former product leader. The advisors will receive a share of the fund’s carried interest, aligning their incentives with the partners’ success.