Mary D’Onofrio, who led Bessemer Enterprise Companions’ investments in unicorns together with Anthropic and Canva, has left to affix Crosslink Capital, Fortune has solely discovered.
D’Onofrio will lead Crosslink’s crossover fund, specializing in Collection B-plus investments in AI vertical software program and infrastructure.
“The world is altering so quickly because of AI,” stated D’Onofrio when reached by Fortune. “I believe there’s an attention-grabbing alternative to have a enjoyable technique that takes benefit of the dislocation that AI is creating…to spend money on each new AI-native firms, and even to increase the runway for current firms that may have to rethink their structure or go-to-market within the context of that quickly altering world.”
D’Onofrio spent seven years at Bessemer, changing into a associate in 2021. Her Bessemer portfolio included Anthropic, Canva, Teleport, HashiCorp, Toast, and Wrapbook. At Crosslink she might be pursuing “fewer, higher-conviction offers” as AI valuations stay excessive.
“It’s nonetheless a bit of little bit of a story of two cities [when it comes to valuations],” stated D’Onofrio. “Some AI firms are getting valued extremely extremely. However the rationale is that there are huge TAMs [total addressable markets] which can be going to be captured. You possibly can argue there are plenty of companies that might be added to traditionally constrained software program to develop even additional.”
Crosslink—whose previous and current portfolio consists of BetterUp, Postmates, and Flume Well being—made information just lately amid fintech startup Chime’s profitable IPO. The agency led Chime’s Collection A in 2014 and was amongst Chime’s largest shareholders (with a couple of 9.5% stake) as the corporate went public this month. D’Onofrio declined to touch upon Chime.
Crosslink, D’Onofrio stated, has a three-pronged technique of early-stage enterprise, progress, and public investing.
“It permits us to be fairly dexterous by way of the businesses Crosslink serves. So, for our fast success tales, it could possibly pull on totally different swimming pools of capital and proceed to take a position. And for people who take extra time—or that may see success and wish a couple of years of discovering their approach—the agency might be actually affected person companions; they will make investments really throughout the life cycle.”
