Base10 Partners Raises $850M for Real Economy Automation

San Francisco venture firm Base10 Partners has closed two funds totaling $850 million to back automation technologies serving what it calls the real economy—industries like logistics, construction, payroll, and manufacturing that have historically lagged in technology adoption.

The capital is split between a seed and Series A fund (Fund 4) and a Series B fund (Fund 2), according to details first reported by Crunchbase News. Co-founder Adeyemi Ajao described the firm's investment thesis as bringing capabilities traditionally available to the top 1 percent of companies to the remaining 99 percent.

Investment focus and portfolio

Base10's existing portfolio illustrates this approach. Holdings include Latin American neobank Nubank, fleet safety management platform Motive, travel agent software provider WeTravel, enterprise AI agent developer Happy Robot, and coffee chain Blank Street.

The firm plans to make 10 to 15 seed investments and two to three Series A investments annually from its early-stage fund. The Series B fund, roughly equal in size, will deploy capital into three to four companies per year.

Ajao told Crunchbase News that Base10 is exploring vision models and world models—technologies that process visual information similarly to how large language models process text. The firm sees potential in AI systems that can understand construction sites at the pixel level, which could unlock new robotics applications.

Manufacturing intelligence represents another priority. Ajao posed the question of whether AI can comprehend manufacturing processes across diverse products—from perfumes to pharmaceuticals to semiconductors—the way language models understand text.

Research-driven strategy

Base10 operates on a research-first model, spending months analyzing sectors before making investments. The firm dedicates roughly 50 percent of its time to companies not actively fundraising, with 90 percent of its investments originating from this proactive research.

For the recent Y Combinator batch of 160 companies, Base10 only meets with startups aligned with its existing research priorities. The firm has developed an internal AI system called Base11 to classify companies and automate research tasks, though Ajao emphasized that final investment decisions remain human-driven, requiring deeper engagement with founders and their customers.

Why it matters

While much venture capital chases consumer AI and software-as-a-service models, Base10's focus on physical economy automation addresses a significant market gap. Industries like construction, manufacturing, and logistics represent trillions in economic activity but have seen slower technology penetration than knowledge work sectors. As AI capabilities extend beyond text processing into visual understanding and physical world modeling, capital dedicated specifically to these applications could accelerate automation in sectors that employ millions of workers and underpin supply chains.

Through its Advancement Initiative, Base10 commits up to 50 percent of carried interest to underfunded colleges and universities for financial aid.

These details were first reported by Crunchbase News in an interview with Ajao.