In a move that underscores growing confidence in emerging venture managers and early-stage innovation, AAF Management Ltd. (“AAF”) has announced the close of The Axis Fund, a $55 million hybrid fund that will invest in both early venture funds and their most promising portfolio companies.
The new fund brings AAF’s total assets under management to $250 million — a milestone for the Washington-based firm, which has quietly built a reputation as one of the most data-driven and globally connected investors in early-stage markets.
Since its founding in 2016, AAF has made 138 direct investments and backed 39 emerging managers across 43 fund vintages. Its portfolio reads like a snapshot of the modern venture landscape — Jasper, Current, Flutterwave, Drata, and Hello Heart have all achieved unicorn status, while 20 others, including TruOptik, MoneyLion, and Prodigy, have exited for a combined enterprise value of $2 billion.
With The Axis Fund, AAF plans to take that strategy further — combining its experience as both a fund-of-funds investor and a direct early-stage investor. The fund will target Pre-Seed to Pre-IPO opportunities, with an emphasis on identifying “outliers” in the fast-changing tech ecosystem.
“The richest dataset of private market companies at the earliest stages of their formation is accessed only through LP checks in emerging managers,” said Kyle Hendrick, General Partner and Managing Director at AAF. “With The Axis Fund, we are combining our fund-of-funds investing track record along with our Seed track record under one fund umbrella to generate the best risk-adjusted return for our LPs.”
The fund’s anchor investors include Mubadala Capital, several family offices across the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a U.S.-based venture capital firm managing billions in assets, and a publicly traded company.
At the core of AAF’s approach is a data strategy that stands apart from traditional venture investing. By leveraging the data streams generated through limited partner (LP) checks into emerging managers, the firm gains privileged access to early-stage company insights — the kind of information that doesn’t show up on platforms like Crunchbase or CB Insights.
That model has already borne fruit. The Axis Fund has invested in 25 Pre-Seed and Seed funds and made five direct investments in early-stage and growth companies. Collectively, those underlying funds have exposure to roughly 800 venture-backed startups founded between 2021 and 2025 — the period that defined the post-pandemic investment cycle.
“Our two-pronged investing strategy allows our LPs to access a beta product, through the indexing of emerging managers, and an alpha product, through the picking of companies to back at the early stage,” said Omar Darwazah, also a General Partner and Managing Director at AAF. “This strategy allows us to identify signal from noise and increase our probability of backing outliers — fund returners, 10x cash-on-cash returning companies and Seed to Unicorn investments.”
Partners and founders who’ve worked with AAF say the firm’s unique blend of patience and precision has set it apart from peers.
“The AAF team has been an exceptional partner to Zelda Ventures, both as an investor in the firm’s Fund 1 and as a collaborative co-investor,” said Suzanne Fletcher, Founder and General Partner of Zelda Ventures. “They not only supported us early but have also continued to engage meaningfully, from investing alongside us in Okahu to flagging opportunities like Originalis. AAF’s approach of backing managers and then investing alongside them truly delivers on their mission to build enduring partnerships.”
For founders, that approach translates into relationships that stretch long before term sheets. Zaid Rahman, Founder and CEO of Flex, said AAF’s commitment began long before capital arrived. “They began building a relationship with me and the company nearly two years before investing,” he said. “Flex was originally sourced through their LP check in 305 Ventures, and since then, AAF has participated in our Series A and every subsequent financing round. We’re excited to continue working with them as both capital formation and business development partners.”
AAF has been steadily scaling its reach over the years — from its $25 million Fund I in 2017 to a $39 million Fund II in 2021, and a proprietary $32 million fund-of-funds vehicle launched for select limited partners. Through these vehicles, the firm estimates it is exposed to more than 5% of the world’s private market unicorns.