Three OpenAI veterans launch Zero Shot, a $100M VC fund targeting early-stage AI and robotics startups

Zero Shot, a new venture fund co-founded by three former OpenAI employees including ex-head of applied engineering Evan Morikawa and original prompt engineer Andrew Mayne, has made its first close toward a $100M target and already written checks to several startups. The fund has backed Worktrace AI, an enterprise automation platform founded by early OpenAI product manager Angela Jiang that raised a $10M seed round, and Foundry Robotics, an AI-enhanced factory robotics startup that raised a $13.5M seed led by Khosla Ventures. The partners say their insider knowledge of where AI models are headed also shapes what they won't fund, with Morikawa skeptical of egocentric video data companies in robotics and Mayne bearish on most vibe coding platforms and digital twin startups.