While AI peers chase billion-dollar megafunds, the Eventbrite founder’s venture firm has gone the other way.
Kevin Hartz, the Eventbrite co-founder turned long-time seed investor, has closed a $450m fund at A*, his San Francisco venture firm, according to Bloomberg. The vehicle pointedly avoids the multi-billion-dollar AI megafund template that has dominated venture fundraising for the past 18 months.
A*’s previous vehicle, Fund II, closed at $315m in June 2024 and was oversubscribed. Fund I closed at $300m in 2021. The new $450m mark represents a controlled step up, in keeping with what Hartz has previously described as a deliberately constrained portfolio of high-conviction bets rather than a sprawl of small cheques.
The framing on this round is what Bloomberg, citing Hartz, calls a less-is-more strategy: a smaller fund relative to the AI-stage giants, a higher proportion deployed per company, and a discipline against following hot rounds at any price.
The pitch is intended to read as a counter-narrative to firms whose recent raises have ranged from $3bn to $10bn and whose check sizes increasingly look like late-stage growth investments dressed in venture clothes.
