Blue Moon Research
Overview
Blue Moon (formerly known as 2|Twelve, legal entity 2.12 Angels LLC) is a San Francisco-based seed-stage venture capital fund that bills itself as the world's first fully AI-powered venture capital fund. The firm operates more like a fintech company than a traditional VC, using proprietary AI agents and machine learning algorithms across all operations — from deal sourcing and vetting to portfolio monitoring and founder support.
Investment Thesis
Blue Moon believes that if you invest in tech, you should use technology to do it. The firm has built a proprietary AI/ML platform that sources deals via multiple data pipelines, achieving 3x more deal flow than average Tier 1 VCs including stealth companies. Their ML algorithm predicts a startup's chances of reaching Series B, analyzing 53 personality traits and millions of data points to narrow 8,000+ deals per year down to approximately 400 selected companies.
The firm focuses exclusively on B2B/Enterprise companies, including Infrastructure, Cloud, DevTools, AI, SaaS, Cybersecurity, and B2B Fintech. They track over 30,000 talents and claim approximately 60% market coverage in their focus areas.
Stage Focus & Check Size
Blue Moon invests $200,000 in seed-stage companies. This is a fixed check size, not a range. They position themselves as the highest value-add to founders per dollar invested, compensating for the smaller check size with extensive value-add services.
Lead Tendency
Blue Moon explicitly does not lead rounds. They co-invest alongside top lead investors and can help founders find a lead investor through their network. This follow-only strategy allows them to deploy across a large number of companies at seed stage.
Decision Process
The decision process is remarkably fast and structured: two Zoom meetings, with a decision delivered the same week as the second meeting. The first meeting focuses on the company's product and market. The second meeting discusses the founders' personal stories — what drives them. The firm emphasizes that founders should also understand what drives the Blue Moon team, creating a mutual evaluation.
Recent Activity & Performance
Blue Moon is in the top 1% of the best performing seed funds in the US. Fund I included 50 investments with a 50% graduation rate from Seed to Series A for 2021 vintage investments (compared to industry averages of 37-44%). Fund I produced 2 companies valued at $1B+ (unicorns). The firm runs approximately 5,000 AI-powered tasks per day, makes 1.5M API calls per year, and has automated 480 workflows across all operations.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable portfolio companies include:
- DevRev (devrev.ai) — CRM platform for developers, founded by Dheeraj Pandey who previously co-founded Nutanix (IPO, $2B+ annual revenue)
- Mercor (mercor.com) — AI-powered talent matching, founded by Brendan (Thiel Fellow, ex-AWS consultant at age 13)
- Boardy (boardy.ai) — Social AI for meaningful introductions, founded by Andrew (previously co-founded ClearCo)
- Keep Financial (keepfinancial.com) — Reinventing compensation, founded by Rob & Kathryn (previously founded Kabbage, acquired by American Express)
- Databento (databento.com) — Financial market data platform, founded by Christina (founded quant hedge fund at 20 at MIT)
- Safebooks AI (safebooks.ai) — Financial data verification, raised $15M in Dec 2025
Notable Exits:
- Codiga → Acquired by Datadog
- Kona → Acquired by 15Five
- OfficeTogether → Acquired by Envoy
- Plato → Acquired by Coda
- Syrup Tech → Acquired by Anaplan
Value-Add Services
Blue Moon provides extensive value-add services, all paid for by the fund:
- Executive Coaching — Partner David provides leadership coaching
- Sales Coaching — Hilmon and Cory help build scalable sales engines
- CTO Mentoring — Access to 1,000+ mentors
- Sherpa AI — Proprietary AI chatbot for founders providing strategic advice, hiring help, and fundraising guidance
- M&A Support — GP Ben Orthlieb is Head of Corp Dev at LinkedIn
AI Infrastructure
The firm's proprietary AI tools include:
- Da Vinci — AI senior analyst that digests articles and podcasts from vetted sources daily (RAG-based, 10M+ tokens/month)
- Sherpa — AI chatbot for founder support with proprietary data
- Kojak — AI that tracks portfolio performance, captures investor updates, and manages CEO catch-up calls
- ML-based deal vetting algorithm analyzing 53 personality traits
Team
- Benjamin Orthlieb — Co-Founder & General Partner. Head of Corporate Development at LinkedIn. Wharton MBA. Previously co-founded Off The Grid Ventures. Angel investor and advisor.
Geographic Focus
Blue Moon invests exclusively in North America. They do not invest outside this geography.
Co-Investors
The firm states it has co-invested with top-tier lead investors, though specific co-investor names were not prominently listed on the website.