Collab Fund

Over the past year, athletes using Nomio have broken records and won Olympic gold.  This isn't just another sports nutrition brand. It’s science-backed, trusted by serious athletes, and points to where performance products are heading next. Read more about why we invested:

Mina and his team are taking a different and more human approach to consumer AI and I, for one, am so proud that we're backing him at @collabfund and @AIResidency

"People would literally laugh in my face... no one has an investment memo for dog longevity." Loyal CEO Celine Halioua (@celinehalioua) is pioneering her own startup category at @loyalfordogs, raising $250M+ and running a clinical trial with 1,300 pets to secure FDA approval for drugs to help our furry friends live 2 years longer or more 🐕 But ask her for her Upstart Moment, and she says her journey's been full of them -- from investor doubts to looking different from the typical Silicon Valley deep tech founder 🔬 We get into it on Episode 2 of The Upstarts Podcast in a conversation any startup builder should check out 👇 Chapters: 0:00 Intro to Celine and Loyal 1:42 Celine’s origins in human longevity 12:44 Breaking Silicon Valley patterns 14:51 The largest clinical trial for pets 18:13 Handling founder highs and lows 20:53 Celine’s Upstart Moment 24:53 Overcoming her biggest fear 30:56 Finding the right people 34:29 Loyal’s healthier future 35:23 Setting a new example A big thanks to our podcast launch partner, @mercury, for amplifying startup stories like this 💪 Enjoy! youtu.be/nU9vdakV9QY

Loyal has raised a $100M Series C from age1, Baillie Gifford, existing investors, & more this brings Loyal's total funding to over a quarter of a billion dollars we are building the longevity pharma, starting with dog longevity. thanks @FastCompany for the exclusive ->

Cohort 2 is officially underway, and the AIR ecosystem is expanding—more builders, more energy, more surface area for consumer and design-led work. Community Happy hour this thurs in our new LES HQ. Come hang. @mauhan_ @minafahmi @sandbar @martinastks @nicole_ripka

HUGE congrats to Richard, Mykola, and the entire @Haiqu_Inc team on announcing their $11M seed today! Proud to be investors alongside @PrimaryVC and others. Haiqu’s OS makes today’s noisy quantum hardware useful for real applications. It's a big step toward quantum advantage before fully fault-tolerant qubits arrive.

our dog longevity drug LOY-002 has earned FDA safety approval we now have 2 of 3 major sections of our New Animal Drug Application complete (!) if (when) we earn FDA manufacturing approval, Loyal will launch the *first FDA-approved lifespan extension drug*

The lifelong @Capitals fan in me can’t believe I get to partner with Tom. He’s the definition of grit, leadership, and heart - on the ice and off. Pumped for what’s ahead 🏒 #allcaps

Very thrilled for AIR Advisor @PimDeWitte and AIR portfolio company General Intuition. 🚀🚀🚀

@ztf is spot on: "We are pro-weirdness. Weirdness is where non-consensus ideas, new behaviors, and enduring advantages tend to surface before they are obvious (or optimized away)." Got an open tab we should see? Reply with the link and why it matters?

Read more at collabfund.substack.com/p/culture-x-ca…

Capital is following these shifts into places once deemed too basic to be investable.

Plucked from an intra-office email this week: “There’s something funny in the food innovation and food entrepreneurship culture in America. It seems as if eating fruit & veg feels like a breakthrough in the US haha”

We’re excited for this next phase of our company’s growth: businesswire.com/news/home/2025….

Seeing millions of learners around the world use Speak to build fluency and confidence has been the most rewarding part of the journey. Crossing $100M ARR is an exciting milestone and one step toward our goal of building the world’s best superhuman AI language tutor. What's next? We’re deepening our push in the US, expanding into new languages and growing our enterprise arm. Join us, we're hiring! forbes.com/sites/rashishr…

Just 1 week left to apply for @AIResidency January cohort. The application is quick. Looking forward to seeing yours!

episode 4 of the rise is live. featuring Craig Shapiro (@cshapiro), founder & managing partner of Collaborative Fund (@collabfund), a leading source of capital for entrepreneurs pushing the world forward. based in nyc and managing over $1b, collab has backed category-defining companies like kickstarter (@kickstarter) reddit (@reddit) lyft (@lyft) sweetgreen (@sweetgreen) the farmers dog (@thefarmersdog) whoop (@whoop) dandelion energy (@dandelionenergy) and more, proving that for-profit can also be for-good. we get into how Craig helped shape the modern nyc venture scene, the conviction behind collab’s breakout bets, the shared future fund, and air residency. a nyc-based program investing in teams building human-centered ai products that move the world forward (link in thread). timestamps below. full episode in comments. 0:00 - welcome craig shapiro to the rise 1:00 - the mantra: better for me and better for the world 2:22 - starting collab fund in new york 4:38 - the evolution of the new york venture ecosystem 8:04 - success stories: portfolio companies 14:45 - the beyond meat investment 23:54 - fundraising challenges and early supporters 28:58 - institutional investors and fund growth, ai partnerships 33:09 - graffiti art and collaborative fund 34:45 - partnership with sesame street 37:47 - ai residency program 40:51 - crypto spin-out: collab currency 47:56 - mission-driven investment approach 52:46 - advice for emerging managers 57:35 - future of collaborative fund 1:05:00 - thanks craig for joining! like & subscribe