M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund

Spotted in Observer: M12 Managing Partner Michael Stewart on how AI is reshaping the venture landscape 👀 A few standout themes from Michael’s perspective that capture how we’re thinking about the future of AI investing at M12: ➡️ AI as a force multiplier in deal sourcing — While founder meetings and networks remain core, we’re increasingly layering AI tools to analyze leads (unit economics, pricing models, technology stacks). ➡️ Real traction vs. pilots — In an AI-saturated environment, proof of recurring revenue (beyond experiments) is a meaningful differentiator. ➡️ Infrastructure matters — The next frontier hinges on the chips, memory, networking, and endpoints required to scale AI globally. ➡️ Patience in a hyper-accelerated market — With funding rounds ballooning early, it’s tempting to sprint. We believe the best outcomes come when we let our bets mature deliberately. The M12 team is committed to building the future responsibly; embracing AI as both a lens and a lever, while staying grounded in founder grit, sound economics, and lasting product-market fit. Read the full piece: https://lnkd.in/gHWM3AwA

We had a fantastic evening connecting with founders, investors, and friends at yesterday’s Startup & VC Happy Hour in Seattle ☕🍸 It’s always energizing to see familiar faces and meet new ones across the Pacific Northwest venture ecosystem — all against a perfect fall backdrop at Mbar Rooftop Bar. A huge thank you to our co-hosts at J.P. Morgan Innovation Economy Banking and to everyone who joined us for great conversation and connection, including Yoko Okano, Jennifer Savage, Mike Miller, Carly Kiser, Zane Khatib, Sophia Lu, Kevin Crosby and Rasik Parikh. We’re proud to be part of such a vibrant community of builders and investors driving innovation in the Pacific Northwest — and we look forward to more moments like this soon. 🌲

As AI workloads scale, so must the infrastructure that powers them. The launch of SquadRack™ by M12 portfolio company d-Matrix marks a key step in making inference more efficient and scalable across data centers, offering a glimpse of what next-generation AI infrastructure looks like. It’s a powerful example of how collaboration and innovation are driving the next era of compute. https://lnkd.in/e5vDxw5A

At our recent Accelerate Together event in Mountain View, founders, investors, and technology leaders came together to explore the next wave of AI innovation with partners including Cognition, Replit, LlamaIndex, and Icertis. Through Microsoft for Startups and M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, Microsoft is helping early-stage founders scale faster and tackle real-world challenges with AI, serving as a trusted bridge between high-potential startups and global enterprise customers. This is how we accelerate innovation together. 💡🤝 Read more: https://lnkd.in/esP2VkZt

🎉 We're proud to announce that PAXAFE has earned the Microsoft Healthcare AI Certified Software designation. This certification validates our technology against rigorous standards for ethical AI, data privacy, and responsible innovation in healthcare. As a Microsoft partner built on Azure and backed by M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, this certification reinforces our commitment to delivering secure, trusted and sound AI to the cold chain cargo owners & logistics services providers we serve. Ilya Preston, Ashok Seetharam, Brian Shultz, Chandler Williams, Ivan Castro, Sally Ann Frank #decisionintelligence #ai #llm #coldchain #digitaltransformation

🎉 We're proud to announce that RAAPID INC has earned the Microsoft Healthcare AI Certified Software designation. This certification validates our technology against rigorous standards for ethical AI, data privacy, and responsible innovation in healthcare. As a Microsoft partner built on Azure and backed by M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, this certification reinforces our commitment to delivering secure, trusted, and clinically sound AI to the payers and providers we serve. 👉 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 - https://bit.ly/42wAzw5 . . . Chetan Parikh | Michael Clark | Derek Haynes | Sally Ann Frank

At M12, we back founders who reimagine what’s possible — and micro1 is doing just that. The company is flipping the script on AI and education by recruiting professors and domain experts to teach machines, not the other way around. As featured in Forbes, micro1 is redefining how intelligence is built, blending human expertise with scalable AI systems. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/eVMZyjXW

🚀 #SFTechWeek is almost here — and the future of AI will be front and center. On October 9th, M12 Managing Partner Todd Graham will join a panel of leaders shaping how human intelligence fuels AI training and innovation: 🌟 Ali Ansari, Founder of micro1 (an M12 portfolio company) 🌟 Arjun Desai, Co-founder of Cartesia 🌟 Rob McGrorty, Product Lead at Amazon AGI Labs The conversation will be moderated by Jules Qiu, Investor at Radical Ventures. Together, this group will explore how expert data, human-centered design, and ethical guardrails are shaping the next generation of applications — from frontier LLMs to enterprise agents and voice AI. If you’re building, investing, or scaling in AI, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss. 🔗 Register here to join us: https://lnkd.in/gnnDrfg4

Spend is one of the clearest signals of where startups are headed. This new analysis from Andreessen Horowitz and Mercury maps the 50 AI-native apps capturing real dollars from early-stage companies. A few signals resonate with what we’re seeing across our portfolio: ➡️  Founders directing dollars toward capital-efficient AI adoption ➡️ Consumer-born apps rapidly entering enterprise workflows ➡️ Vertical AI gaining traction in recruiting, compliance, and customer service We’re glad to see our portfolio companies micro1 and Solve Intelligence recognized on the list, both building the AI-native foundations of tomorrow’s enterprise. The takeaway is clear: AI-native software is moving from experiment to enterprise standard faster than any prior wave of technology.