Obvious Ventures Raises $360M Fund Focused on Planetary, Human, and Economic Health

Obvious Ventures, the venture capital firm co-founded by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, has closed its fifth fund — continuing a long-standing tradition of playful precision with a total raise of $360,360,360.

"We invest at the frontiers of math, science, and physics, and we like to celebrate math in our fund sizes as well," said James Joaquin, Obvious Ventures' co-founder and managing director, speaking with TechCrunch.

The firm's previous funds followed a similar numerical theme. Its first fund totalled $123,456,789, followed by a second fund of $191,919,191, a palindrome that reads the same forward and backwards. The third fund, $271,828,182, referenced Euler's number — commonly known as e — while the fourth fund, announced in mid-2022, continued the palindrome motif at $355,111,553.

This time, however, the symbolism behind the number is less about mathematical novelty and more about Obvious Ventures' investment philosophy. After more than a decade in operation, the firm says the 360-degree figure reflects its holistic approach to investing across three primary areas: planet, humankind, and economic health.

"We love the idea of taking a 360-degree view across each of those dimensions," Joaquin said. "You have to understand what's worked before — and what hasn't — to build something durable."

That emphasis on durability is intentional. Joaquin pointed to the firm's early investment in Beyond Meat, which reached a market capitalisation above $14 billion shortly after its 2019 IPO, only tonly to fall below $1 billion by late 2022, as a reminder of how volatile public markets can be.

Despite that volatility, Joaquin said Obvious Ventures has delivered meaningful cash distributions to limited partners across all of its core funds and has supported several companies through successful public exits. In 2015, the firm invested in satellite imagery company Planet Labs, which went public via a SPAC in 2021 and currently carries a market value of roughly $8.5 billion. Its Series A investment in Recursion Pharmaceuticals is also publicly traded, with a market capitalisation above $2 billion.

Obvious Ventures was also an early backer of Gusto, the HR and payroll platform that was most recently valued at over $9 billion in the private markets and is widely viewed as a future IPO candidate.

At a time when only 17% of venture firms manage to raise more than three funds — according to data from Sapphire Partners — Obvious Ventures' latest close underscores its position as an established player in the venture capital ecosystem.

🎓On graduation rates:

🔹 Only half of all Fund Is make it to raise a Fund II
🔹 Just ~17% of Fund Is become “established” (Fund IV)
🔹 <5% reach Fund VIII, the threshold of franchise potential pic.twitter.com/iN4F0zdcTU — Beezer Clarkson (@Beezer232) January 23, 2026

"Making it to fund five is actually a major milestone in this industry," Joaquin said.

While the firm may approach fund sizing with a sense of humour, its focus on backing startups that generate positive real-world impact remains central. Joaquin highlighted investments aligned with each of the firm's three pillars.

In planetary health, Obvious Ventures invested in Zanskar, a startup that uses proprietary data and artificial intelligence to identify and develop geothermal energy resources — one of the most cost-effective sources of clean power. Zanskar announced a $115 million Series C round last week. Obvious, which led the company's prior funding round, sees strong potential in geothermal energy's abilityto support power-hungry AI data centres.

In human health, the firm pointed to its investment in Inceptive, an AI-driven platform for molecular design. The company was founded by Jakob Uszkoreit, one of the co-authors of the influential "Attention Is All You Need" paper that introduced the transformer architecture underpinning modern generative AI systems.

For economic health, Joaquin highlighted Dexterity Robotics, a company valued at $1.65 billion last year that builds humanoid robots designed to perform "dull, dirty, and dangerous" tasks in warehouses and industrial settings.

Alongside Joaquin, Obvious Ventures has four active investors, including co-founder Vishal Vasishth. Evan Williams remains a co-founder and serves as an adviser to the firm. Obvious plans to make roughly 10 investments per year from the new fund, typically writing checks between $5 million and $12 million for seed and Series A companies.