Latest fund size
$160M
Announced
October 21, 2026
Global HQ
United States
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Check size
$1M-$10M
Members only
Stage focus
Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B
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Regions of investment
North America
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Bison Ventures is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, originally founded in Seattle in 2021, investing in AI applied to physical systems such as energy, food, factories, biology, and infrastructure, a category the firm calls Real World Intelligence. The firm also backs energy and compute innovations that enable these systems, investing from pre-seed through Series B in founders building non-incremental technology.
Tom Biegala, Founding Partner
Ben Hemani, Founding Partner
Caleb Appleton, Partner
Ari Wright, Principal
Ellie McDonald, Principal
Members only
Names, roles, emails and LinkedIn profiles for the team, plus the fund's website.
Bison Ventures invests in what it calls Real World Intelligence: AI applied to physical systems including energy, food, factories, biology, and infrastructure, a category the firm describes as a $50 trillion market.
The firm also backs energy and compute innovations that enable these systems. It invests from pre-seed through Series B, targeting founders building non-incremental technology, with investing and engineering experience across robotics, semiconductor manufacturing, energy, biology, materials science, and infrastructure.
Members only
What the fund looks for in founders and which sectors it backs.
Bison Ventures announced the close of its $160 million Fund 2, following its $135 million debut fund.
Early Fund 2 deployments include Grid Aero, which built a full-scale autonomous cargo aircraft; Great Sky, which is developing superconducting chips the company says will be far more efficient than traditional GPUs; and Inner Logic, a surgical AI trained in simulation that the firm says transferred to an autonomous gallbladder removal in a real patient.
Members only
Fund size, LPs and track record.
Leadership
Bison Ventures was co-founded by Tom Biegala and Ben Hemani, who serve as Founding Partners.
The broader team includes Caleb Appleton, Partner, and Principals Ari Wright and Ellie McDonald.
Investment Strategy
Bison Ventures typically writes checks of $1 million to $10 million, leading rounds at seed and Series A and selectively following on into growth-stage rounds for its highest-conviction companies.
The firm takes a thesis-driven approach, choosing specific frontier technology categories such as robotics, energy, and biology ahead of broader market attention, and has backed portfolio companies from early seed rounds through later-stage financings at valuations above $100 million.
Notable Investments
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Leadership, investment strategy, notable investments and exits.
