How this 31 year old raised $10M for his first VC Fund & his Pitch Deck

This 31-Year-Old Just Raised $10M to Invest in AI (His Deck Inside)

Most first-time fund managers never get past coffee chats.
But at 31, Sam Awrabi convinced LPs to give him $10M for his debut venture fund, Banyan AI Fund I.

His pitch? AI will be bigger than mobile and web combined and Banyan will own a slice of the infrastructure and applications powering it.

Here’s the playbook Awrabi used to close his first fund:

1. Positioning matters

Banyan isn’t a generalist shop. It invests only in AI-native companies, from GPU cooling and inference chips to workflow-standardizing SaaS.

2. Proof of traction

Even pre-fund, Banyan had backed 14 startups already, with portfolio revenue topping $490M. For LPs, that track record = de-risked entry.

3. A methodical framework

Awrabi branded his process Escape Velocity Investing: a five-step filter from market timing to founder-market fit. The framing makes Banyan feel disciplined, not opportunistic.

4. A clear model

• Fund size: $10M

• Target: 36+ AI infra & app startups

• Checks: $200K–$425K

• Valuations: $3M–$99M

• Ownership: Up to 10%

5. Founder edge

Awrabi has been in AI sales and GTM since 2018 (Samsung’s MissingLink.ai, Comet). He’s scaled startups from $0 to $70M+ raised, built go-to-market teams, and advised founders on hitting $1M–$5M ARR. That credibility bought him LP trust.

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The Deck

We got the actual pitch deck Awrabi used with LPs.
It shows exactly how he:

• Framed AI as the dominant force of our era

• Positioned Banyan as the “AI-native” specialist

• Laid out his sourcing flywheel (2,000+ AI founders, 1,000+ technical leaders, 100+ VCs)

• Structured the fund economics to win commitments

Check it out with the free trial (no strings attached), or jump straight into premium if you’re ready for the full scoop👇