Makers Fund vs Menlo Ventures

Makers Fund raises $250M Fund IV

Makers Fund announces $250M Fund IV, along with several portfolio company funding news.

Makers Fund Closes $250M Fund IV

Makers Fund, a venture capital firm founded in 2016, has closed its fourth fund at $250 million, bringing its assets under management to $1.5 billion. Fund IV will invest globally across stages in the next generation of games and interactive entertainment, and the firm said it is expanding beyond games into consumer apps, entertainment and creation platforms. Makers has invested in more than 90 portfolio companies and reports that its $180m Fund I has distributed 3.6x the capital invested. The firm said it will use equity, project financing and marketing financing as needed to back founders.

• Makers Fund closed its fourth fund (Fund IV) at $250 million.
• The firm’s total assets under management rose to $1.5 billion.
• Makers has invested in more than 90 portfolio companies since its 2016 founding.

Atomontage rebuilds Virtual Matter for browser AI UGC

Atomontage has rebuilt its Virtual Matter creation platform to enable browser-based user-generated multiplayer games that players can enter via a link with no install. The platform uses ordered, compressed volumetric samples streamed progressively to phones, and adds an optional, model-agnostic AI agent for creation; expensive GPU inference is separated from CPU-only game hosting so play remains low-cost. Atomontage is backed by Makers Fund, Hartmann Capital and a group of angel investors. The company charges makers subscriptions plus metered AI credits, plans a marketplace and engine royalty model, and expects standalone export to itch.io and Steam later in 2026. Cofounders Daniel Tabar and Branislav Siles position the tech as lowering the floor for creators while raising the ceiling for professional designers.

• Atomontage rebuilt its Virtual Matter platform to enable browser-based UGC multiplayer worlds that load from a link with no install.
• The platform uses ordered, compressed volumetric samples streamed progressively to devices and stores persistent, editable world state.
• AI assistance is optional and model-agnostic; GPU inference for creation is routed separately while world simulation and multiplayer run on CPU-only servers.

Menlo Ventures Welcomes Alex Kurland as Newest Partner; Stripe to Acquire OpenRouter

Menlo Ventures announces the addition of Alex Kurland as its newest partner, and portfolio company OpenRouter has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Stripe.

Lovable Raises $400M at $13.3B Valuation, Doubling from Previous Round

Swedish vibe-coding startup Lovable has raised $400 million in a Series C round at a $13.3 billion valuation, more than double its December 2025 valuation of $6.6 billion. The round was co-led by Menlo Ventures and the Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, with participation from Balderton Capital, Tencent, Kaszek Ventures, and others. Returning investors include Accel, DST Global, and Salesforce Ventures. Lovable, launched in 2024, enables non-coders to build software through AI-assisted 'vibe-coding.' The company reports that apps built on its platform see over 900 million visits per month. Customers include Nvidia, Adidas, and Zendesk. Lovable plans to expand its business customer base, grow headcount by 50% to 450 employees across Sweden and the US, and develop more proactive capabilities beyond prompt-based interactions, while continuing to use multiple AI models and post-train open-source models.

• Lovable raised $400 million in Series C funding.
• The round values Lovable at $13.3 billion, double its December 2025 valuation of $6.6 billion.
• The round was co-led by Menlo Ventures and the Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT.

Wispr raises $280M Series B at $2B valuation

Wispr, an AI dictation startup, raised $280 million in a Series B round led by Menlo Ventures at a $2 billion valuation. The funding brings Wispr’s total capital raised to $361 million and will support expansion into new product areas such as a meeting note-taker. Wispr also announced a new speech-understanding model called Canto, which the company says will cut dictation error rates from about 30% to under 10%. Existing backers including Notable Capital, NEA, Neo Ventures, 8VC and MVP Ventures participated, and new investors include Acrew, Forerunner, Goodwater, Peak XV, Together Fund and PLUS Capital. The company has expanded regionally and released an Android app, and it faces competition from other dictation and meeting-notetaker apps.

• Wispr raised $280 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures at a $2 billion valuation.
• With the latest round, Wispr has raised $361 million in total to date.
• Existing investors Notable Capital, NEA, Neo Ventures, 8VC and MVP Ventures participated; new investors include Acrew, Forerunner, Goodwater, Peak XV, Together Fund and PLUS Capital.