Venture capital firm ex/ante raises US$33 million

Ex/ante, a venture capital firm incubated by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's philanthropic venture capital arm Schmidt Futures, has successfully raised $33 million in funding and received support from Cendana Capital, Marc Andreessen, the Ford Foundation and Union Square Ventures. The fund focuses on investing in early-stage seed-stage startups, with a particular emphasis on “agency technology” – an emerging technology related to human behavior and rights in the digital age. ex/ante’s investment philosophy focuses on the Internet’s potential threats to democracy and intellectual property issues in an era of AI-generated deepfakes. Fund manager Zoe Weinberg’s extensive study and work experience in New York, Harvard, Stanford and Yale have given her a deep understanding of the use of technology to enhance democratic values ​​and defend against cyber threats. Co-managing the fund with Weinberg is Michael Mosier, who was previously chief legal officer at cryptocurrency startups Espresso Systems and Chainalysis and has also held leadership roles at the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments. Together, the pair will review and invest in companies that would typically be lumped into traditional areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data infrastructure, digital identity, fintech and Web3. ex/ante has made nine investments to date, including in deepfake detection startup Reality Defender, consumer identity company Lockr and self-hosting company Webacy. (Forbes)