Fusion Fund Announces Fusion Fund III to Support Early-Stage Technical Founders

Lu Zhang , Founder and Managing Partner, leads her team in closing $120M in Fusion Fund III to invest in deep tech founders leveraging technology and data to build transformational businesses in healthcare, enterprise AI, and industrial automation.

Based on Fusion Fund’s accomplishments from Funds I and II, the firm has announced its newest fund: Fusion Fund III. With $120M in committed capital, this fund will be deployed with the same successful strategy utilized in prior funds: support technical, data-driven founders aiming to build transformative and lasting businesses in healthcare, enterprise AI, and industrial automation. Fusion Fund backs early-stage entrepreneurs developing forward-thinking companies with technical and data advantages in their business models, and has many companies in their growing portfolio .

Fusion Fund was founded in 2015 by Lu Zhang , the Founder and Managing Partner, who is a successful healthcare entrepreneur herself. During her graduate studies in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University, Zhang independently commercialized technology utilizing thin-film sensors for highly sensitive diabetes detection. She successfully sold her company, Acetone inc, to one of the largest Medical Device companies in the US. After building a successful angel investment portfolio with several large M&A and IPO exits, she started Fusion Fund to continue supporting technical founders, many of which come from immigrant and diverse backgrounds. The entire Fusion Fund team is built around a core ethos of partnering with technically driven founders and working with them to build great businesses from the beginning.

The Team: Diverse, Experienced, and Technical

Since then, Zhang has built up a well-rounded and impactful team of former technical entrepreneurs, operators, executives, and investors. She believes the best way to help technically driven founders is to have lived that journey and have hands-on experience in working in those sectors. Homan Yuen, Partner, joined early in the fund’s history after his own entrepreneurial journey. He co-founded Solar Junction in 2007, and based on his PhD research in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, developed the world’s most efficient solar cell.

For Fund III, the firm formalized relationships with two well-known executives. Shane Wall joins as President of the CXO Network and Partner. He was previously the CTO of Hewlett Packard, a member of the White House Science and Technology Council, and the founding member of Intel Capital. Shane’s deep corporate, technical, and operating background brings tremendous value to the Fusion Fund portfolio.

Also joining the firm is Trevor Mottl , Venture Partner. Trevor has deep experience in bringing innovative technologies into large enterprises and has valuable insights into the institutional finance sector with his experience as Managing Director at Lazard Asset Management, an important facet for Fusion Fund portfolio companies as they grow into large businesses.

Several new members have also recently joined the investment team from a wide background of industry, operational, and technical experience. Ivneet Bhullar , Principal, brings deep operational and technical healthcare experience to the firm. He was previously a Senior Manager in Amgen’s Digital Health and Innovation group and spent time at Genentech and Lazard. His combination of business and technical expertise is further reflected in his MBA from Harvard Business School and degrees in Biomedical Engineering from UCSD and UCLA. Auguste Fagniez , Analyst, has experience in fintech and received his degree from the University of Bath.

Supporting Entrepreneurs with the CXO Network and Founders Hub

An investment from Fusion Fund brings much more than financial capital to the portfolio founders, as it allows founders to learn from and engage with a highly knowledgeable network of industry leaders. Headed by Shane Wall, The CXO Network allows founders to achieve early market validation by talking with the leaders and decision makers in their respective industries. The network consistently generates valuable insights and customer connections and has created many sources of revenue for the fund’s portfolio companies.

The Fusion Fund CXO Network consists of over 40 C-level executives including CTOs, CIOs, and CDOs from Global 1000 companies. This elite network provides timely and strategic connections for the fund’s portfolio companies with unique insights and information.

Since the launch of the CXO network, the team has also organized multiple CXO Webinars on topics such as Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Security, Frontier Tech, Applied AI, and is looking to explore key topics in digital transformation. The network is continuously growing and a key resource for portfolio founders.

Recruiting and retaining top talent has never been more challenging. Fusion Fund is developing the Founders Hub to support founders in identifying needs for their business and assisting them in recruiting and retaining top talent. Identifying and securing impactful board members is also a key feature of this support.

Investing in The Future of Venture Capital

Fusion Fund believes in creating real-world opportunities for growth and learning.?The Fusion Fund Fellowship Program is a 4-month long apprenticeship where fellows will work directly with our investment team members to learn and explore every facet of work in the venture capital world.?The program is dedicated to working professionals working in technical roles and post-graduates/PhDs in technical domains who are motivated and passionate about exploring a potential career in Venture Capital and getting additional exposure to the technical start-up ecosystem.?

Creating Lasting Change

The strategy for Fund III remains the same: partnering with technically driven entrepreneurs. This proven strategy has enabled the firm to generate extraordinary investment returns for their limited partners (LPs), many of whom have continued to invest into Fund III after committing to prior funds. Fusion Fund also brought on many new investors into Fund III, a large portion of which consisted of institutional investors including pension funds, fund of funds, and large corporates.

While the financial and political situation around the world has brought about market uncertainty, the team at Fusion Fund believes that truly fundamental and transformative companies are constantly being created. The team believes this is even more true during times of extreme volatility and disruption and they will continue to identify, invest in, and support strong entrepreneurial talent looking to use technology to make the world a better place.

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