Lazarte, Fredrickson Pitch $800 Million AI Fund Less Than 1 Year After Solo Raises
Updated
Updated · Forbes · May 26
Lazarte, Fredrickson Pitch $800 Million AI Fund Less Than 1 Year After Solo Raises
1 articles · Updated · Forbes · May 26
$800 million is the target for Diffusion, a new joint AI fund Victor Lazarte and Kris Fredrickson are pitching to limited partners for both early- and growth-stage startup bets.
The effort is unusual because both investors left prior firms less than a year ago and had already raised separate vehicles—Lazarte’s $200 million VL fund and Fredrickson’s $175 million Verified fund.
Their pitch leans on recent AI wins: Lazarte backed Mercor before its valuation jumped from $250 million to $10 billion, while Fredrickson invested in Harvey before it reached $11 billion in March 2026.
The raise would rank as the year’s largest first-time fund, even as venture capital money has concentrated in giant firms; PitchBook says 80% of Q1’s $60 billion went to five mega-funds.