Last year, sound companies 9-year-old Beverly Hills, California-based venture firm, led by general partners Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Effie Epstein, announced a new $265 million artificial intelligence fund that was betting big on big modelling companies’ linguistics, including OpenAI. Anthropic and Embracing Face.
The plan was to invest in just six companies, a risky but potentially lucrative bet for the team’s vision of the future, where, due to the technical talent required and the capital needed to cover computing costs, the biggest winners in AI will be few and massive.
Since then, Sound has raised more money for that same fund. They also seem to have stuck to their mission, judging by the few deals they’ve publicly revealed in 2024, and we’re thrilled to host all three at britcommerce Disrupt 2024 to talk about their strategy, along with the trends they’re rightly following. Now.
Kutcher has perhaps transitioned between the worlds of acting and investing more seamlessly than anyone in Hollywood, beginning his entrepreneurial journey in 2010 with the release of Grade A Investments with talent manager and business partner Guy Oseary, whose early bets on Airbnb and Uber helped cement his reputation for closing the right deals at the right time.
The two, who founded Sound Ventures in 2014, brought Epstein on board several years later to complement their skills. Epstein previously led global strategy at Marsh, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan. She also served as senior vice president of planning and head of investor relations at iHeartMedia and, before that, worked in business development at Clear.
Epstein also previously worked in investment banking in the energy sector, bringing a diverse set of experiences and contacts.
You won’t want to miss this fireside at Disrupt Stage, where you’ll be among the 10,000 tech, startup, and VC leaders attending Disrupt 2024. Register Now to lock in your ticket price before it goes up at the door.
