AAF closes Axis Fund at USD $55 million for early-stage backing
AAF has announced the closing of The Axis Fund at USD $55 million, targeting investments in emerging managers and early-stage companies.
The Axis Fund represents AAF's fourth fund, bringing the firm's total assets under management to USD $250 million. The hybrid fund is designed to invest in emerging venture managers-specifically those raising their first or second funds-and their portfolio companies at stages ranging from Pre-Seed to Pre-IPO.
Since 2016, AAF has backed 39 emerging managers across 43 fund vintages and made 138 direct investments. Its track record includes five companies that reached unicorn status-Jasper, Current, Flutterwave, Drata and Hello Heart-and 20 company exits, such as TruOptik, MoneyLion, Even Financial and Medumo, contributing to a combined enterprise value of USD $2 billion.
AAF's investment approach emphasises access to proprietary, non-public data within the early-stage private market. The firm leverages its Limited Partner investments in emerging managers to gain information that may otherwise be unavailable through standard industry data sources, such as Crunchbase or CB Insights. This data access is a foundational component of their strategy in identifying high-potential companies at an early stage.
The newly closed Axis Fund has, to date, invested in 25 Pre-Seed and Seed funds and made five direct investments. The managers supported by the fund have exposure to around 800 venture-backed companies formed between 2021 and 2025.
The Axis Fund is anchored by investors including Mubadala Capital, family offices from the US, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, asset managers based in the US, a multi-billion-dollar venture capital firm from the US, as well as a publicly traded company.
Strategy focus
Kyle Hendrick, General Partner and Managing Director at AAF, said, "Over the past decade, we have found that the richest dataset of private market companies at the earliest stages of their formation is accessed only through LP checks in emerging managers. With The Axis Fund, we are combining our fund-of-funds investing track record along with our Seed track record under one fund umbrella to generate the best risk-adjusted return for our LPs."
Omar Darwazah, General Partner and Managing Director at AAF, also commented on the dual strategy approach, stating, "Our two-pronged investing strategy allows our LPs to access a beta product, through the indexing of emerging managers, and an alpha product, through the picking of companies to back at the early stage. This strategy allows us to identify signal from noise and increase our probability of backing outliers - fund returners, 10x cash-on-cash returning companies and Seed to Unicorn investments."
Partner and founder perspectives
"The AAF team has been an exceptional partner to Zelda Ventures, both as an investor in the firm's Fund 1 and as a collaborative co-investor. They not only supported us early but have also continued to engage meaningfully, from investing alongside us in Okahu to flagging opportunities like Originalis. AAF's approach of backing managers and then investing alongside them truly delivers on their mission to build enduring partnerships."
- Suzanne Fletcher, Founder and General Partner, Zelda Ventures
"AAF has been an exceptional partner to us. They began building a relationship with me and the company nearly two years before investing. Flex was originally sourced through their LP check in 305 Ventures, and since then, AAF has participated in our Series A and every subsequent financing round. We're excited to continue working with them as both capital formation and business development partners, leveraging their global LP network and deep connectivity across the MENA region."
- Zaid Rahman, Founder and CEO, Flex
Performance and vintage
Previous AAF funds include a USD $25 million Fund I in 2017, a USD $39 million Fund II in 2021 and a USD $32 million fund-of-funds vehicle in 2017. The firm states its prior fund vintages are ranked in the top decile for Net TVPI compared to Cambridge Associates and Carta's venture capital benchmarks. AAF currently has exposure to over 5% of the world's private market unicorns through its direct investing and fund-of-funds platforms.
AAF has invested in companies such as KarmaCheck, Pelago, Sure, Shippabo and Nitra at the Pre-Seed, Seed or Series A stages, among others. The firm's current asset mix continues to include investments across fintech, healthcare, consumer, enterprise software and deep technology sectors.
