Name: Fusion Fund
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Website: https://www.fusionfund.com/
Size: I just launched Fund III last year. It is $120M. My second fund, launched in 2018, is $85M.
What it is: Fusion Fund supports early-stage entrepreneurs who are looking to build globally disruptive companies using innovative technologies to drive systemic change. We are entering the next wave of technological advancement and foundational innovation is required to enable massive growth. We seek to support entrepreneurs who are building companies with strong technical barriers and advantages in their business models. We work in established industries and nascent markets. Areas where we have strong conviction include: network technology, connected industry, AI, and health + medical.
Minimum investment: $1M -$3M
Leadership:
- Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner
- Shane Wall, Partner and President of Fusion CXO network
Investment style/track record: I am an entrepreneur and investor with strong technical and operational experience. I sold my startup, Acetone Inc., focused on medical device for testing for Type II diabetes, developed a track record as an investor at Fenox Venture Capital and launched my own firm in 2014. We have more than 60 portfolio companies across the United States with 6 M&A exits and 3 upcoming IPOs. Portfolio companies include GrubMarket, Accern and Otter.ai.
The firm operates the Fusion CXO network, which has 44 CTO/CIO from global 100 companies and is led by Shane Wall, the former CTO of Hewlett Packard.
Quote: “We invest in the industry and sectors that we have strong domain expertise, understand the life cycle of early-stage startup very well, and leverage our former entrepreneurial experiences. … We focus on bringing in strong revenue traction to the founder post-investment.”
VC insights:
- The keys to digital transformation are software-hardware integration. There are three layers: understanding data entrance, network technology that allows data transfer, and data processing.
- AI in health care should focus on solving what I call the AAA problem: accessibility, affordability and accuracy
- The future of health care innovation isn’t just about curing the disease. It’s also about improving the quality of life. Personalized diagnostics that detect diseases like cancer, heart disease and mental illness at super-early stages could be very important, too.
- Diversity is critical to innovation!
This Q&A was developed with written answers to our VC spotlight questions, and then edited for clarity and length.
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