Introducing the Alumni Ventures Global Bridge Fund Series

Here’s what I see happening. As technological change accelerates, serious world economies are focused on two things simultaneously: one one hand, how to nurture sovereign innovation strength at home; on one hand, how to tap into the extraordinary U.S. innovation economy. At Alumni Ventures, we hold the deep conviction that those two goals are connected, not conflicting. The Global Bridge Funds are designed for innovation ecosystems that want to both build at home and bridge to the world.

What we’re announcing

Today I’m announcing Alumni Ventures’ Global Bridge Fund Series — a new venture platform for institutional partners, purpose-built for this moment. Each fund, typically in the $100m range, will be anchored in a specific country or region and create structured, two-way connections between that region’s capital and innovation ecosystem and the U.S. and global markets. The goal is not simply to bring local innovation to the United States, but to create durable two-way pathways for capital, technology, talent, customers, and partnerships.

The structure matters. These aren’t passive exposure vehicles. Each Global Bridge Fund invests in both local and American startups, including structured education programs, annual demo days connecting portfolio companies, corporate partners, government stakeholders, follow-on investors, and more. The design is additive — it strengthens local ecosystems. AV doesn’t lead financing rounds, doesn’t compete for board seats, and doesn’t price rounds. We bring capital, network, and a genuine bridge into one of the deepest active portfolios in American venture.

Why now

Strategic allocators like sovereign funds, corporates, universities, and governments are actively building their innovation ecosystems — not as walled gardens, but as strategic connection points to world markets. You can see this pattern clearly in our own portfolio: Toronto-based Cohere merging with Germany’s Aleph Alpha; U.S.-based Atom Computing building its European HQ in Denmark, backed by EIFO; Lila Sciences building autonomous science labs with support from both U.S. and U.K. governments; Iambic Therapeutics raising sovereign capital from Mubadala and QIA and building multi-billion-dollar partnership with Takeda in Japan. Increasingly, leading universities are becoming engines of deep-tech commercialization and startup creation, making them natural partners in the build-and-bridge model.

In the midst of this work, the European Commission has stated publicly that private capital must step up because public money alone can’t fund the tech-sovereignty agenda. Lovable is being built in Stockholm, Mistral in Paris, Helsing in Munich. About half the world’s unicorns are now built outside the U.S. These ecosystems are producing serious companies. What they often need is structured capital connectivity — the kind that helps local founders scale globally and helps local institutions access the best of what U.S. venture produces.

That’s the gap we’re designed to fill. In many cases, the challenge is no longer innovation creation. It’s innovation connectivity.

As a Top 20 ranked firm with 1,400+ active portfolio companies* — including standouts like Groq, Oura, Rigetti, Circle, Lambda, and many more — AV has built the kind of network and track record that makes this work. We got there by co-investing alongside leading VCs, not competing with them. That cooperative model travels well. And deep in our DNA is building community, a powerful network of over 11,000 investors, and expanding access to some of the best VC opportunities in the world.

 

*AV has received several awards from national outlets and organizations, recognizing our distinct model and the quality and breadth of our investment activity. See Alumni Ventures’ Awards & Rankings.

The Japan-U.S. Bridge Fund: live and deploying

The first Global Bridge Fund is the Japan-U.S. Bridge Fund (JUSB), which held its first close on March 31, 2026. KDDI — one of Japan’s largest telecom companies — is an anchor partner, alongside the UTokyo IPC, the University of Tokyo’s innovation and commercialization platform. We’re already deploying into both Japanese and American startups. The first close of JUSB demonstrates that leading Japanese institutions increasingly view cross-border venture partnerships as a tool for both commercialization and ecosystem development.

KDDI and UTokyo IPC aren’t passive capital providers. They are strategic partners helping connect startups, researchers, corporates, investors, and innovation ecosystems across Japan and the United States. That’s exactly the model we intend to replicate.

What’s next

We plan to launch at least one new Global Bridge Fund per year over the next three years, focused on regions where strong local innovation ecosystems, institutional partners, and global market connectivity create compelling opportunities for long-term collaboration – in jurisdictions in the Atlantic, Pacific and the Gulf.  Each fund will be structured around local partner priorities and the specific connection opportunities between their ecosystem and ours.

I announced this on stage at SuperReturn Venture in Berlin on June 8—fitting, given the depth of company-building happening across Europe right now.

If you’re a sovereign fund, corporate, university, or government innovation stakeholder working through how to structure cross-border venture exposure, or a founder or fund looking for a cooperative U.S. and global partner, we’d like to talk.

The question isn’t where innovation happens. It’s how the world’s economies can take full advantage of it. We believe in a future where forward-thinking leaders work both to build and to bridge; that’s what our Global Bridge Funds are for.

This communication is from Alumni Ventures, a for-profit venture capital company that is not affiliated with or endorsed by any school. It is not personalized advice, and AV only provides advice to its client funds. This communication is neither an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any security. Such offers are made only pursuant to the formal offering documents for the fund(s) concerned, and describe significant risks and other material information that should be carefully considered before investing. For additional information, please see here. Achievement of investment objectives, including any amount of investment return, cannot be guaranteed. Co-investors are shown for illustrative purposes only, do not reflect all organizations with which AV co-invests, and do not necessarily indicate future co-investors. Example portfolio companies shown are not available to future investors, except potentially in the case of follow-on investments. Venture capital investing involves substantial risk, including risk of loss of all capital invested. Diversification cannot prevent investment loss; it is a strategy to mitigate investment risk. This communication includes forward-looking statements, generally consisting of any statement pertaining to any issue other than historical fact, including without limitation predictions, financial projections, the anticipated results of the execution of any plan or strategy, the expectation or belief of the speaker, or other events or circumstances to exist in the future. Forward-looking statements are not representations of actual fact, depend on certain assumptions that may not be realized, and are not guaranteed to occur. Any forward-looking statements included in this communication speak only as of the date of the communication. AV and its affiliates disclaim any obligation to update, amend, or alter such forward-looking statements, whether due to subsequent events, new information, or otherwise.