Benjamin Levy
Partner, Co-Head of Venture Capital and AI & Innovation Groups at Ares Management Corporation
· Silicon Valley
Check size
$100K - $6M
Lead stage
Pre-Seed
Deals tracked
25
Sectors
AI, Applied Artificial Intelligence
AI
Applied Artificial Intelligence
Enterprise
Future of Work
Health
Logistics
Pre-Seed
Seed
Series A
Series B+
Silicon Valley
San Francisco
United States
Europe
Asia
About Benjamin
Benjamin Levy is Partner and Co-Head of Venture Capital & AI Groups at BootstrapLabs (an Ares Management company), where he leads applied AI investments from seed to growth stage. He co-founded BootstrapLabs in 2015 as one of the first AI-first venture capital firms and has built two successful fintech exits (Praedea Solutions acquired by Mergent in 2005; InsideVenture acquired by SecondMarket/NASDAQ in 2009). Prior to Ares, Levy spent 15+ years as a technology investment banker at Lazard, SG Cowen, Houlihan Lokey, and other firms advising Fortune 500 companies and founders on M&A and corporate strategy
Investment thesis
Partner and Co-Head of Venture Capital and AI Groups at Ares Management (via BootstrapLabs), backing seed-to-growth Applied AI founders with strong sector and geo fit
Benjamin Levy co-leads BootstrapLabs, an AI-first venture capital firm acquired by Ares Management in 2024 that has invested in Applied Artificial Intelligence since 2015. The fund backs seed-to-growth stage founders applying AI to solve enterprise problems across sectors including Future of Work, Mobility, Health, Digital Infrastructure, Financial Infrastructure, and Climate & Energy. Levy combines ML founder experience (Praedea Solutions) with investment banking expertise ($5B+ in M&A deals) to support companies that use distributed R&D models near universities while leveraging Silicon Valley for scaling and exits
Investment philosophy
Benjamin Levy is a venture capital investor focused on Applied Artificial Intelligence, having been among the first U.S. VC firms to invest solely in AI technology startups since 2015. He actively manages a portfolio of AI-first companies whose aggregate enterprise value grew nearly 10x in the last five years, working closely with founders to scale technology, products, teams, and operations.
Investment focus
Applied AI across enterprise and deep tech sectors, with a thesis focused on visionary founders solving critical problems through artificial intelligence. BootstrapLabs invests seed-to-growth stage and works closely with AI talent and domain experts to support portfolio company scaling
Areas of expertise
Recent activity
Live platform data · proprietary, citable layer
Notable portfolio
6sense
CargoChief
Charm Solutions
GetAccept
Hayden AI
iUNU
Kountable
Loadsmart
Looq AI
Mendel
mParticle
Nodle
Pryon
Quarvis Health
Rabot
Notable deals
Praedea Solutions – Data mining software using ML/NLP, acquired by Mergent (2005)
InsideVenture – Pre-IPO founder-investor platform, acquired by SecondMarket/NASDAQ (2009)
Looq AI – Board member
IUNU – Board member
Southie Autonomy – Board member
Frequently asked
Does Benjamin Levy invest at Pre-Seed stage?
Yes. They invest at Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A stage.
Their geographic focus includes Silicon Valley, San Francisco, United States.
What is their typical check size?
Benjamin Levy's typical check size is $100K - $6M.
They currently invest through Ares Management Corporation.
What sectors does Benjamin Levy focus on?
Benjamin Levy primarily invests in AI, Applied Artificial Intelligence, Enterprise, Future of Work.
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