Instacart co-founder launches AI-driven hedge fund

Investing.com -- Instacart co-founder Apoorva Mehta launched a hedge fund that uses artificial intelligence agents to replace fundamental portfolio managers.

The firm, Abundance, employs thousands of bots that search the internet for trade ideas, conduct research, select stocks for long and short positions, determine bet sizes and execute trades. Mehta, 39, started the Palo Alto, California-based company last year with a team of quantitative researchers, engineers and AI experts who develop and maintain AI models.

The fund currently has stock-picking strategies operated entirely by AI, while some strategies under development include a degree of human involvement, Mehta said in an interview. The firm raised $100 million in seed equity financing and trades primarily its own capital, with plans to accept outside money in the future.

Mehta said human investors face limitations compared to AI. People "can only track so many opportunities at once, process them only so deeply, make only so many high-quality decisions," he said. "Even for the exceptional investor, the process is locked inside their mind. AI changes that entirely."

Abundance's 10-person team currently makes long and short stock bets and plans to expand into other asset classes. The firm aims to have artificial intelligence run the entire fund, though some strategies currently incorporate human involvement.

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