Union Square Ventures closes $900M — its largest fund ever — and incubates Super Take, an AI investing agent

Union Square Ventures closes $900M fund, incubates AI investing agent Super Take

Union Square Ventures has closed $900 million across its latest fund cycle, the largest in the firm's history, and has quietly incubated a new company called Super Take that lets anyone express an investment idea in plain language and have an AI agent build, invest in, and rebalance a portfolio on their behalf.

The fund

The $900M raise reflects both larger round sizes and a broader mandate. USV has been investing in robotics for years and launched an energy fund in 2021 covering nuclear and battery storage, categories that require more capital and longer development timelines than pure software. Rebecca Kaden frames it plainly: rounds are bigger, opportunities are larger, and the fund needs to reflect the market as it exists, not as it existed a decade ago.

Michael Mignano argues the firm's relatively contained size is actually a structural advantage. At $900M, USV can generate meaningful returns from exits in the single-digit billions, while still having the capital to participate when a portfolio company reaches $50B or $100B, as some historically have.

LPs appear comfortable with the longer hold periods. The argument is straightforward: companies in robotics, energy, and deep AI applications simply need more time and capital than 2010-era SaaS did, and the upside ceiling has risen commensurately.

“Rebecca Kaden: 'We raised $900,000,000, which is the largest fund cycle in USV's history.' Michael Mignano on Super Take: 'An agent, a Frontier agent will go and build an investable portfolio for them, invest in it automatically, and in real time be rebalancing it.' On founder qualities: 'You need depth of perspective, you need to be an absolute talent magnet, you need to be faster than everyone else, and you need to be so good at telling a story that you win the market before it's obvious.'”

What USV is looking for in founders

AI is lowering the barrier to building a good product, which changes what actually matters at the founding stage. Kaden identifies four things USV now prioritizes: depth of perspective that others don't have, the ability to attract exceptional talent, speed, and the storytelling to win a market before it becomes obvious. Mignano adds that capital-raising ability has become a genuine competitive weapon. Out-raising a competitor can effectively suck oxygen from the room, so founders who can do that at scale have a structural edge.

Super Take

USV's incubation of Super Take grew directly out of a firm-wide thesis the team calls "obliterate, don't automate," the idea that agents won't just automate existing workflows but reshape the underlying markets entirely. USV applied that lens to personal finance and concluded that most people invest with neither the knowledge nor the tools to make good decisions, whether through financial advisors, ETFs, or individual stock picks.

The firm looked for an existing company doing this, found none, and built it themselves. Super Take launched less than two weeks before this conversation. The product is still early, and USV is currently hiring leadership to run it.

Mignano is careful not to frame this as a traditional incubation. USV treats Super Take and similar bets as inception-stage investments, either finding the right person in their network and giving them capital to explore an idea, or finding a person to attach to an idea the firm has already developed.

Public thinking as competitive strategy

USV publishes ideas early and deliberately, including half-formed ones, on the premise that the feedback, the inbound from founders, and the pressure-testing are worth far more than any first-mover advantage from keeping a thesis quiet. Kaden is direct: gatekeeping ideas is a losing game. Mignano points to Doctronic, a USV-seeded company that prescribes medicine via AI, which looked "sci fi" at the time of investment and now seems obvious. Getting smarter faster, through public writing and early bets, is how USV justifies the approach.

Portfolio companies Suno and General Intuition are also referenced as investments in the fund cycle.