What Fusion Fund does

Fusion Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2015 by Lu Zhang and headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The firm invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A stages in startups with technical or data advantages across three core theses: healthcare, enterprise AI, and industrial automation/industrial technology, with a geographic mandate covering the United States and Canada. Across four funds, Fusion Fund has accumulated over $500M in assets under management, with Fund IV alone closing at $190M in March 2025, oversubscribed in under six months. The LP base spans endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, large corporates, fund-of-funds, and strategic family offices, with many returning investors across vintages.

The firm operates a layered ecosystem on top of the core investment platform, including the Fusion CXO Network (45+ Fortune 1000 executives across 11 industries, led by former HP CTO Shane Wall), the Fusion Expert Network (50+ leaders from Meta, Tesla, Google, Amazon), the Distinguished Scholar Network (researchers from Stanford, MIT, Columbia, UCSF, Caltech), and an annual VC Fellowship program. Internally, Fusion Fund has built and matured a proprietary AI analyst called 'Ada' since 2018, used for stealth-mode deal sourcing and market-trends analysis. The investment team — Lu Zhang (Stanford PhD, four prior angel-investor IPOs), Shane Wall (former HP CTO, former U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology member), David Gerster (15+ years ML/data at Yahoo, Microsoft, Groupon), and Ivneet Bhullar (UCLA/Harvard bioengineering, ex-Genentech/Amgen) — combines technical depth with operating pedigree atypical for a seed-stage firm.

Fusion Fund generates revenue through standard VC economics: management fees on committed capital (typically around 2% annually) and carried interest on successful portfolio exits. The portfolio spans 30+ named companies across healthcare AI (Subtle Medical, Proscia, Medra, Somite AI, Element Biosciences), enterprise AI (Otter.ai, You.com, Vectara, Portal26, Bodo.ai, Accern, Constructor), industrial AI (CVector, AgileRL, LeanCon), semiconductors and edge AI (EdgeQ, Blumind, Loft Labs), space (Scout Space, Starpath), cybersecurity (Zeroport, Reality Defender), food supply chain (GrubMarket, valued at $2B+), logistics (Optimal Dynamics), fintech (Autonomous Technologies Group), and other categories. The firm is privately held, with a small core team of 1–10 employees.

Name

Fusion Fund

Legal name

Fusion Fund

Website

http://fusionfund.com/

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Fusion Fund is a Palo Alto-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2015 by Lu Zhang, investing at Pre-Seed to Series A in healthcare, enterprise AI, and industrial automation startups across the U.S. and Canada, with $500M+ AUM across four funds.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital / Private Equity

NAICS

Open-End Investment Funds (52591), Other Investment Pools and Funds (5259), Other Financial Vehicles (525990)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282), Security Brokers, Dealers & Flotation Companies (6211)

akta.pro primary industry

Sector-Focused Venture Capital (Vertical Specialists) (FSANAAAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Venture Capital Fund-of-Funds (FSANAGAC), Venture Capital Fundraising Placement (FSAEALAC)

Keywords

• Early stage venture capital
• Seed and series A investing
• Healthcare AI investment
• Enterprise AI investing
• Industrial technology venture

Headquarters

HQ city

Palo Alto

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Fund management and investment income: Fusion Fund IV closed at $190M in committed capital, bringing the firm to over $500M in total assets under management. LP base comprises endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, large corporates, fund-of-funds, and strategic family offices. Revenue generated via typical VC economics: management fees on committed capital and carried interest on successful exits (Lu Zhang's prior angel investing track record included 4 IPOs).

Go-to-market motion1 record

Core offering

Fusion Fund is a thesis-driven early-stage venture capital firm that invests Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A capital in technical founders building in healthcare, enterprise AI, and industrial technology across the United States and Canada. Around the capital, the firm layers a multi-layered community ecosystem (CXO Network, Fusion Expert Network, Distinguished Scholar Network) and a Founders Hub program that delivers customer introductions, recruiting support, fundraising and exit guidance, and partner offers (AWS, Notion, KPMG) to portfolio companies.

Product overview

Fusion Fund is a single-platform early-stage venture capital firm rather than a multi-product software vendor; its core offering is a series of investment funds (currently Fund IV, a $190M early-stage vehicle) anchored on three sectors — Enterprise AI, Healthcare, and Industrial Automation. Layered on top of the core investment platform are community and support modules for portfolio companies: the Founders Hub (with Start-up 101 educational content, weekly office hours, fundraising/exit guidance, a recruiting platform, social events, and partner offers such as AWS, Notion, and KPMG) and the CXO Network of 45+ Fortune 1000 executives led by former HP CTO Shane Wall. External-facing community products include the Fusion Expert Network (FXN) of 50+ technologists/operators and the Distinguished Scholar Network (DSN) of leading academics, both of which provide advisory and commercialization support. Educational products comprise the 12-week annual Venture Fellowship (2026 cohort accepting applications) and the newly launched Fellowship Ambassador Program for deeper operational involvement. Internally, Fusion Fund operates Ada, a proprietary AI analyst that supports deal sourcing and market-trends analysis across the investment team.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Fusion Fund IV Early-stage venture capital fund of $190M in committed capital, investing in Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A startups in healthcare, enterprise AI, and industrial automation across the United States and Canada.
• Founders Hub Portfolio services program for Fusion Fund portfolio companies, comprising Start-up 101 educational content, CXO Network access, weekly VC office hours, fundraising and exit strategy guidance, a recruiting platform, social events, and partner/special-offer programs (with AWS, Notion, KPMG, and others).
• CXO Network Network of 45+ C-level executives from Fortune 1000 corporates across 11 industries, led by former HP CTO Shane Wall, providing portfolio founders with market validation, commercialization acceleration, and advisory board connections.
• Fusion Expert Network (FXN) Invite-only group of 50+ industry leaders and technologists (including experts from Meta, Tesla, Google, and Amazon) led by Lu Zhang, providing expert advisory, industry references, and connections to portfolio startups.
• Fusion Distinguished Scholar Network (DSN) Invite-only community pairing distinguished academics and rising research stars (Stanford, MIT, Columbia, UCSF, Caltech, UPenn, Wisconsin-Madison, NVIDIA Research) with Fusion Fund partners, providing support from research commercialization through IPO, including strategic guidance, co-founder/advisor matching, and venture topic discussions.
• Fusion Fund Venture Fellowship Annual 12-week fellowship program for working technologists and advanced-degree students covering deal sourcing, due diligence, deal negotiation, portfolio management, term sheets, and dilution; includes hands-on sourcing/screening apprenticeship.
• Fusion Fellowship Ambassador Program Extension of the Venture Fellowship that engages a select group of prior fellows (inaugural: Ethan Yang, Jason Lin, Tristan Yeung, Gomathy Krishnan) more deeply with fund operations including screening, sourcing, and due diligence of investment opportunities.
• Fusion Fund Portfolio Partners Network of Fusion Fund portfolio companies (e.g., Grubmarket, Otter.ai, You.com, Vectara, Lepton AI, Voyage AI, Mission Bio, Element Biosciences, Proscia) across Enterprise AI, Healthcare, and Industrial Automation that benefit from the firm's value-add ecosystem and serve as cross-portfolio commercial partners.

Quantifiable outcome

• $500M+ total assets under management across four funds
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers30 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered cloud infrastructure partner, productivity partner, audit/professional services partner, flagship commercial network, flagship advisory network and flagship academic research network.

• AWScloud infrastructure partnerOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerFusion Fund establishes close connections with AWS (alongside Notion, KPMG, and other partners/vendors) to provide special offers and credits to portfolio companies. Listed under Fusion Fund's Partners & Special Offers program.
• Notionproductivity partnerOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerNotion is listed among Fusion Fund's Partners & Special Offers program providing offers to portfolio companies alongside AWS and KPMG.
• KPMGaudit/professional services partnerImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerKPMG is listed among Fusion Fund's Partners & Special Offers program providing professional services offers to portfolio companies.
• Fusion CXO Network (45+ Fortune 1000 executives across 11 industries)flagship commercial networkGTM or Marketing PartnerHeaded by Shane Wall (former CTO of HP), the CXO Network supports portfolio companies with 45+ executives from global Fortune 1000 corporates across 11 industries including Qualcomm, McAfee, Juniper Networks, DHL, Analog Devices, and Genpact. Provides market validation, customer connections, advisory/independent board relationships.
• Fusion Expert Network (FXN) — 50+ industry leaders from Meta, Tesla, Google, Amazonflagship advisory networkGTM or Marketing PartnerLed by Lu Zhang, FXN is an invite-only group of 50+ industry leaders and technologists including Bob Rebitzer (Chair of Board, El Camino Health), Catherine Ye (ex-Stripe), Mahak Sharma (OpenAI), Jennifer Ewbank (former CIA Deputy Director for Digital Innovation), Sol Rashidi (CSO, Cyera), Tyler Shultz (Venture Partner, Verge HealthTech Fund), and others. Provides expert advisory, industry references, and connections to early-stage founders.
• Fusion Distinguished Scholar Network (DSN)flagship academic research networkStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed by Lu Zhang and Charlotte Xia, DSN is an invite-only community partnering with distinguished academics: Caterina Vernieri (Stanford), Hani Goodarzi (UCSF / Arc Institute), Jiajun Wu (Stanford), Jiantao Jiao (NVIDIA Director of Research, UC Berkeley), Kangwook Lee (Wisconsin-Madison), Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz (Caltech), Tengyu Ma (Stanford / MongoDB), Pranam Chatterjee (UPenn), Yunzhu Li (Columbia). DSN supports comprehensive commercialization through IPO.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Lux Capital: Early-stage venture firm investing in science and technology-driven startups across AI, healthcare, and industrial/advanced manufacturing — directly comparable thesis, stage, and sector mix to Fusion Fund.
• Khosla Ventures: Founder-led early-stage VC with concentrated bets across deep tech, AI infrastructure, healthcare, and industrial tech — overlapping with Fusion Fund's three-vertical thesis and Pre-Seed to Series A stage.
• DCVC (Data Collective): Deep-tech focused early-stage VC investing at the intersection of data, computation, and the physical and life sciences — closely aligned with Fusion Fund's enterprise AI, healthcare, and industrial automation focus.
• Innovation Endeavors: Eric Schmidt-backed deep-tech VC investing early-stage in AI, computational biology, climate, and industrial automation — directly comparable sector coverage and stage focus to Fusion Fund.
• Founders Fund: Early-stage VC backing transformative technology companies across AI, healthcare, and advanced technology — comparable thesis-driven investing approach with similar portfolio scope as Fusion Fund.
• Playground Global: Deep-tech focused early-stage VC backing startups at the intersection of AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare — closely overlapping with Fusion Fund's industrial AI and healthcare verticals.
• Obvious Ventures: Mission-driven early-stage VC backing companies in health, climate, and economic empowerment through deep tech — comparable size, stage, and impact-oriented thematic approach to Fusion Fund.
• B Capital Group: Early-to-growth stage VC with focus on enterprise tech, healthcare, and industrial tech — overlapping investment thesis with Fusion Fund and similar multi-vertical deep-tech coverage.

Broad incumbents

• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): Mega-VC with significant dedicated bio/health and AI funds investing at all stages across enterprise, healthcare, and industrial tech — competes with Fusion Fund for many of the same early-stage deals, but at materially larger scale and broader portfolio scope.

Emerging players

• Wing VC: Enterprise-focused early-stage VC with concentration in AI, data infrastructure, and developer tools — comparable stage and partial sector overlap with Fusion Fund's enterprise AI vertical.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/fusionfund
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@fusionfund
• Xx.com/FusionFundVC

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments163 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fusion Fund