United States onlyForum's Venture Studio is a leading early-stage fund and program for B2B SaaS startups. Starting a company is demanding, complex, and psychologically challenging. As former founders and early-stage operators, we understand firsthand that Founders need support, honest feedback, and someone who truly cares in their corner.
Our mission is to make the journey easier and more successful for Founders, and we've achieved this by making over 350+ seed investments that have raised $600M+ in follow-on funding. Forum founders have gone on to raise from funds like Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, SV Angel, and more.
What are we exploring?
Asset-Based Lending AI: Modernizing a $682B Market
Asset-Based Lending (ABL) is a $682B+ market still reliant on outdated, manual processes like in-person appraisals and audits to value collateral. These methods are slow, expensive, and error-prone, hindering deal velocity, limiting credit access, and placing heavy burdens on lenders, especially in the SMB segment. As demand for real-time, accurate collateral valuation grows, the lack of modern infrastructure has become a critical bottleneck.
While ABL remains stuck in outdated processes, the synthetic data space is gaining traction, with startups like MostlyAI, Aindo, and YData raising capital for broad financial applications. Yet no one is addressing the unique needs of the ABL asset class, leaving a clear gap for disruption.
We’re building a synthetic data platform purpose-built for ABL underwriting and real-time asset monitoring. The platform uses computer vision to analyze images and videos of equipment for condition assessment and inventory verification, and leverages diffusion models to generate synthetic data based on historical appraisals, simulating asset performance over time. It also interprets unstructured data like valuation reports and liquidation records to support underwriting decisions.
Forum derisks and accelerates the Founder path by:
A $250K USD investment, and an end-to-end fundraising playbook and network to raise your seed and Series A
A validation partner with proven playbooks, networks, and the systems to validate, unlock your ICP, ignite your sales pipeline, and beyond
The support of our experienced operating team - from business design, product development, growth, recruitment, legal and more
Executing a winning GTM strategy to get to $50-100K ARR, and the right MVP to ensure early traction
A community full of mentors, peers, and leaders
$100K worth of business perks
What you bring:
Deep expertise in asset-based lending, financial risk modeling, or AI/ML applications in credit or underwriting
Strong understanding of collateral valuation, compliance frameworks, and credit risk in structured finance
Experience leading product or engineering teams, ideally in fintech, insurtech, or enterprise AI platforms
Proven ability to build from zero-to-one in highly regulated or complex markets
Demonstrated success in navigating legacy financial ecosystems while introducing innovative, data-driven solutions
Comfortable operating at the intersection of synthetic data, computer vision, and underwriting infrastructure.
Please note, this is not an employment opportunity with Forum Ventures.
About Forum Ventures
Forum Ventures® is the leading early-stage fund, program, and community for B2B SaaS startups based in New York, San Francisco, Toronto, and remote. Founded in 2014, we’re on a mission to make the B2B SaaS journey easier, more accessible, and more successful for early-stage founders, through pre-seed and seed-stage funding. We provide high-touch 1:1 support, programming, corporate perks and introductions, and an active SaaS community to support you through every step of your building journey.
Starting a company is demanding, complex, and psychologically challenging. As former founders and early-stage operators, we understand firsthand that Founders need support, honest feedback, and someone who truly cares in their corner. Our mission is to make the journey easier and more successful for Founders, and we've achieved this by making over 350+ investments that have raised $1Bn+ in follow-on funding. Forum founders have gone on to raise from funds like Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, SV Angel, and more.
