Almost a decade has passed since then Omar Darwazah and Kyle Hendrick launched AAF Command and its first fund of $25 million in 2017.
Instead of scrambling to dramatically grow their assets under management like many mutual funds have in recent years, the partners have deliberately kept their fund sizes small even as their reputation and returns have grown.
Their latest vehicle — a $55 million early-stage hybrid fund called Axis Fund that closed recently — brings the Washington-based venture capital firm’s total assets to about $250 million across four funds. The firm raised a $39 million Fund II in 2021 and a $32 million fund of funds investment vehicle in 2017 for a select group of its limited partners.
“Running a $50 million fund is very different than running a $500 million fund,” general partner Darwazah told TechCrunch. “We’ve seen that of course large fund sizes can disrupt the GP-LP alignment as it becomes a function of generating management fees versus generating carried interest and that’s not a game we want to play.”
Unlike typical VC firms that invest directly in startups, AAF adopts elements of a fund-of-funds model where it invests part of its capital in a portfolio of emerging capital in addition to backing startups.
With this fourth fund, AAF plans to invest in emerging managers’ first or second funds (typically under $50 million) and their most promising portfolio companies from pre-seed to pre-IPO, the partners said.
The firm allocates about 80% of its capital to startups and 20% to emerging capital, combining the two into what it calls a “one-stop fundraising partner” for both founders and fund managers.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
27-29 October 2025
So far, Axis Fund has backed 25 pre-seed and seed venture funds, along with five direct bets on early-stage and growth startups.
“We found that the richest dataset of early-stage private market companies over the last decade is only accessible through LP audits of emerging executives,” said Hendrick, the firm’s other general partner.
This dual fund type strategy has given AAF access to many promising startups. The company is an early investor in Current, Drata, Flutterwave, Jasper and Hello Heart.
Likewise, through funds where it is an LP, AAF has indirect exposure to other unicorns, including Mercury, Deel, Retool, and more recently AI companies such as Motion, Decagon and Eleven Labs through its network of seed-fund LP positions at companies such as Leonis Capital, Wayfinder Ventures, the company that founded the company (Lindloreen, the company that is the Quiloreen company. a similar two-pronged strategy with former Founders Fund GP Brian Singerman for a new fund).
The eight-year-old venture capital firm claims to have exposure to around 800 venture-backed companies launched between 2021 and 2025 through these underlying managers.
With this approach, AAF also focuses less on hands-on recruiting or product assistance for portfolio companies and more on connecting founders with follow-on funds from its network of limited partners. This is a service that becomes especially useful when a startup starts increasing its development cycles.
“I would say where we typically add the most value to a founder’s journey, especially early stage, is through our business network,” Hendrick said. “That means we can get you directly into 45 active venture capitals where we’re an LP. It’s direct distribution into their ecosystems.”
At the same time, AAF serves as a conduit between institutional investors—particularly in the Gulf—who often prefer diversified exposure to ventures without managing dozens of direct relationships.
Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, several US, European and Middle East American family offices, GPs from leading US asset managers, a multi-billion dollar US venture capital firm and a listed company are backing this fourth fund, the firm said.
Darwazah and Hendrick came to dare from different backgrounds. Darwazah, who previously worked in corporate finance and private equity in the Middle East, has spent years bridging Gulf capital with US startups. Hendrick, a former businessman who also worked at the UAE Embassy in the US and a family office in Abu Dhabi, brings an operator’s lens to the early AAF deals.
Across its four funds, AAF made 138 direct investments and backed 39 unique emerging managers, with 20 portfolio exits totaling nearly $2 billion.
These exits include TruOptik, MoneyLion, Even Financial, Portfolium, Prodigy, BetterView, Lightyear, Trim, HeyDoctor and Medumo. At least six publicly traded companies have acquired their portfolio companies, including TransUnion, Giant Digital, GoodRx and Affirm.
The firm says this all adds up to some of its previous fund harvests ranking in the top decile in terms of net TVPI for their respective vintages, according to data from Cambridge Associates and Carta.
“Our strategy allows us to identify the signal from the noise and increase the likelihood of supporting extremes – capital returns, 10x cash-to-cash companies and grassroots to unicorn investments,” said Darwazah.
