The internet is a wild place. Over the last decade, 2.5B people came online. What happens when the next billion internet users come online? We believe that a lot of value may be created. But how? And more importantly, how can you be a part of it? The answers may surprise you. Explore the #RiseReport now. #500strong https://500.co/risereport
500 Global
Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
Palo Alto, California 346,378 followers
Venture Capital firm on a mission to uplift people and economies worldwide through entrepreneurship.
About us
500 Global is a venture capital firm with over $2.7B in Assets Under Management that invests early in founders building fast-growing technology companies. We focus on markets where technology, innovation, and capital can unlock long-term value and drive economic growth. 500 Global has backed over 5,000 founders representing more than 2,600 companies operating in 80 countries. Our portfolio includes 51 companies valued at over $1 billion and 140 companies valued at over $100 million. Our 140+ plus team members are located in more than 15 countries and bring experience as entrepreneurs, investors, and operators from some of the world’s leading technology companies.
- Website
-
http://500.co
External link for 500 Global
- Industry
- Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
- Company size
- 201-500 employees
- Headquarters
- Palo Alto, California
- Type
- Privately Held
- Founded
- 2010
- Specialties
- Startups, entrepreneurship, Venture Capital, Seed Accelerator, Startup Accelerator, Global Venture Capital, Innovation, Seed Program, Global Startup Ecosystems, technology, and investment management
Locations
-
Primary
Get directions
400 Hamilton Ave
Palo Alto, California 94301, US
Employees at 500 Global
-
Tilo Bonow 博蒂洛
Empowering high-growth tech entrepreneurs through strategic storytelling and impactful communication—shaping narratives of the world’s most…
-
Colin Christensen
-
Riz Virk
Faculty Associate@ASU, Play Labs@ MIT, Investor@Griffin Gaming, Theta Labs, TapFish, Tapjoy, Books: Simulation Hypothesis, Startup Myths & Models
-
Sandro P.
Leading enterprise data engineering and martech at TelevisaUnivision - building the next generation data platform and integrations to make the…
Updates
-
500 Global reposted this
PlayAI, one of our seed investments at 500 Global, was just acquired by Meta 🔥 What started as a local problem turned into a global voice infra company—built fast by two bold Egyptian founders. Now they're joining Meta’s Superintelligence Labs. This is what global ambition looks like! 💪 Who’s building the next AI startup from LatAm with that kind of ambition? Tag them in the comments and let's talk!
BIG NEWS FROM #500STRONG: PlayAI, one of our seed investments, has been acquired by Meta! We first met the PlayAI founders Mahmoud Felfel and Hammad Syed back in 2022, when they were just beginning to explore how real-time generative voice could reshape the way people interact with machines. But the idea was born earlier - frustration around regional access to content. As Egyptian founders - Mahmoud and Hammad represent something we believe deeply at 500 Global - that local challenges give birth to global solutions. They moved to Silicon Valley to build their team in the heart of AI innovation. We invested in them in early 2023, captivated by their bold vision, technical edge, and ability to move quickly in an evolving landscape. Check out our AI Salon Interview with Mahmoud and Tony Wang to hear more: https://lnkd.in/e5Qkc_Cp Since then, PlayAI has: - Became the voice infrastructure behind Groq Cloud - Powered real-time agents across sales, support, and IVR - Scaled to 8-figures in ARR Now they’re joining Meta's Superintelligence Labs 🦾 Congrats to Mahmoud, Hammad, and the entire PlayAI team! Christine Tsai Courtney Powell Bedy Yang Amal Dokhan Abdulrahman AlJiffry Amal Enan Daif Alrajhi Reem Khamis Ally Boffa-Taylor Felicia Chia Vishal Harnal Atika French 500 MENA Clayton Bryan, Leonard Lee, Jordan Sawadogo, Iris Sun, Khailee Ng, Tim Chae
AI Salon Conversation with Mahmoud Felfel of PlayAI
https://www.youtube.com/
-
500 Global reposted this
Thrilled to share that PlayAI is now part of Meta Superintelligence Lab! Thank you Steve Jang and the entire Kindred Ventures team, for backing PlayAI early and pushing us to aim higher. Steve, you took a bet on me from back in the Megaphone days, and while I was exploring my next chapter, you introduced me to Mahmoud Felfel and Hammad Syed - an introduction that led me to join as PlayAI's Head of Product & Engineering. Your mentorship has shaped every step of my journey, and I’m genuinely grateful! Anyways, what the PlayAI team accomplished this past year in a humble Palo Alto office: - Trained brand‑new dialogue, diffusion, and speech‑to‑speech models - Shipped lightning‑fast creator & developer tools now used by millions - Reached eight‑figure ARR, all on seed funding None of it would've happened without the talent and grit of our founders, the entire PlayAI crew, plus the support of Race Capital, 500 Global, Y Combinator, and all of our customers. With Meta’s compute, platforms, and reach, we can put truly conversational voice AI into billions of people’s hands, baking natural speech into every app and experience. The mission hasn’t changed, but the canvas just got a LOT bigger. Can’t wait to keep building with this incredible team. 🚀
Founder & Managing Partner @ Kindred Ventures | Forbes Midas List '23, '24 | Former entrepreneur, now early stage investor
PlayAI ✨ Meta Superintelligence Labs! I'm happy to officially share that our portfolio company, PlayAI, a frontier lab in the Voice AI space, has been acquired by Meta Superintelligence Labs! Huge congratulations to Mahmoud Felfel Hammad Syed Kei Yoshikoshi and the entire PlayAI team. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 After going through Y Combinator, Mahmoud and Hammad had been training some TTS models that had found early traction with developers and call center enterprises, but gleaned two insights from this early phase of the company: there was an opportunity to pre-train a variety of new speech models beyond just Whisper-like TTS models, including turn-taking conversational dialogue models, diffusion-based speech models, and faster and more genuinely human speech-to-speech models, and there was also a vacuum in high-quality voice AI products for creators and consumers. We had previously backed pioneering voice-focused AI startups like Humane, Hour One, and Airchat and learned that multimodal LLMs and agentic voice apps with real-time and conversational speech model capabilities were a needed unlock to fulfilling a powerful, yet conversational AI. Last year, we led PlayAI’s combined $21M seed round alongside prior investors, Race Capital, 500 Global, and Y Combinator in the middle of 2024 to enable Felfel and Hammad to both train SOTA models and build out the lego blocks for Voice AI agents and a creator studio for consumers who wanted to use their lightning-fast speech models. I think many of the startups that will succeed in this Generative AI era, will look much like PlayAI – a hybrid of research engineering and product design/development. Teams with the deep understanding of pre- or post-training their own models, and how to design and engineer products will have such an advantage in this new world. All of us at Kindred Ventures are thankful and honored to be part of their journey as their lead seed investor last year and it's been. And I'm stoked for them to now get all the GPUs and gigawatts they want now at Meta SIL and continue their incredible speech model and voice agent work with Mark, Alex, Nat, and team. 😄 More of their story at our blog post below:
-
We've seen a number of public/private partnerships within innovation ecosystem development at the national level focused on AI - from the NAIO Lab, an initiative between the National AI Office Malaysia (NAIO) and the Global AI Village (GAIV) in Kuala Lumpur, to South Korea nominating Jung-Woo Ha Chief Secretary for AI Future Strategy, and Project Transcendence in Saudi, governments are investing in infrastructure for builders and hyperscalers alike. Watch the full segment to hear Christine Tsai's perspective on recent AI M&A activity, including our portfolio company PlayAI's recent acquisition by Meta, and more! Akash Pasricha | The Information Khailee Ng Courtney Powell Bedy Yang Amal Dokhan Tony Wang
Christine Tsai, CEO of 500 Global, on how governments worldwide now see AI as central to economic growth and national leapfrogging. "Almost a trillion dollars globally... committed to national sovereign AI initiatives just in this first half of this year." Catch the full interview here: https://bit.ly/40Ss6lV
-
500 Global reposted this
✨ IA ya cambió el juego. Hoy puedes construir un producto digital en horas. ¿Tienes una startup que usa IA y un equipo pequeño que quiere escalar globalmente? En 500 LatAm te damos: ✅ $300K USD ✅ Mentores y comunidad ✅ Acompañamiento por 12 meses ✅ Silicon Valley Launchpad ¡El momento es AHORA! 👉 https://lnkd.in/gJj2xv9T 500 Global
-
-
BIG NEWS FROM #500STRONG: PlayAI, one of our seed investments, has been acquired by Meta! We first met the PlayAI founders Mahmoud Felfel and Hammad Syed back in 2022, when they were just beginning to explore how real-time generative voice could reshape the way people interact with machines. But the idea was born earlier - frustration around regional access to content. As Egyptian founders - Mahmoud and Hammad represent something we believe deeply at 500 Global - that local challenges give birth to global solutions. They moved to Silicon Valley to build their team in the heart of AI innovation. We invested in them in early 2023, captivated by their bold vision, technical edge, and ability to move quickly in an evolving landscape. Check out our AI Salon Interview with Mahmoud and Tony Wang to hear more: https://lnkd.in/e5Qkc_Cp Since then, PlayAI has: - Became the voice infrastructure behind Groq Cloud - Powered real-time agents across sales, support, and IVR - Scaled to 8-figures in ARR Now they’re joining Meta's Superintelligence Labs 🦾 Congrats to Mahmoud, Hammad, and the entire PlayAI team! Christine Tsai Courtney Powell Bedy Yang Amal Dokhan Abdulrahman AlJiffry Amal Enan Daif Alrajhi Reem Khamis Ally Boffa-Taylor Felicia Chia Vishal Harnal Atika French 500 MENA Clayton Bryan, Leonard Lee, Jordan Sawadogo, Iris Sun, Khailee Ng, Tim Chae
AI Salon Conversation with Mahmoud Felfel of PlayAI
https://www.youtube.com/
-
500 Global reposted this
Getting ready to head to Silicon Valley for VC Unlocked, a program by 500 Global in collaboration with Stanford University. A big thanks to my amazing team( Janice Yang Yawo Kpotufe) who have been helping me sharpen the investment thesis, refining the pitch deck, and translating ideas into something real and focused. It’s been equal parts challenge and momentum, and I’m glad to have had smart minds in the room pushing things forward. Excited to connect with a global cohort of peers, learn from Stanford faculties and seasoned investors who are shaping the future of venture capital. Let’s unlock what’s next. 🔑 P.S If you’re based in SF / Palo Alto / the wider Bay Area, I’d love to meet up for a coffee. #VCUnlocked #VentureCapital #FundOfFunds #InclusiveInnovation #FemaleInvestors #EuropeanVC #GlobalVC #BayAreaVC #StartupEcosystem #SiliconValley
-
-
500 Global reposted this
Meet the 500-backed Tatler Gen.T Leaders of Tomorrow across Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand who are transforming industries and creating a positive impact on communities. Extremely proud of what you’re building Cha-Ly K. (URBANMETRY), Korawad Chearavanont (Amity Solutions), Nirmal AK (Merkle Science), Sayantan Das (being juice), Stephanie Ping (WORQ), Walter Oh (boxgreen), and Whei Meng (Speedhome.com)! Check out the full list: https://bit.ly/405Zupe 500 Global #500Global #500SoutheastAsia #500Strong #startups #technology #innovation #venturecapital #asia #southeastasia #singapore #malaysia #thailand #LeadersOfTomorrow #TatlerGenT #GenTList2025 Photo credit: Tatler
-
Applications for J-StarX Silicon Valley Extended Program by 500 Global are now extended until July 18! Join the J-StarX Silicon Valley Extended Program by 500 Global — an 11-week, tuition-free experience designed to help Japan-based startups scale globally. This is your chance to gain: 🚀 Global fundraising and growth strategies 🤝 1:1 mentorship from seasoned operators in Tokyo and Silicon Valley 🌍 Real-time market validation in the heart of tech innovation 💡 Strategic support for you and your leadership team This program isn’t just about thinking global — it’s about going global. If you're ready to expand beyond Japan, now’s the time. Program Dates: Aug 18 - Nov 14 Applications close at 12:59 PM JST on July 18. 👉 Apply today: https://lnkd.in/eEB3CE3x Jeff Matsuda, Misaki Majima
-
-
500 Global reposted this
Congratulations to PlayAI on joining Meta! When I first met founders Mahmoud F. and Hammad Syed they were early believers in the power of AI to generate human conversational voice. Now they will power voice and agents to billions of users around the world! Amazing to watch what they’ve done in a short amount of time. https://lnkd.in/gEA2WUcc