Amy Wu

Amy Wu began learning the piano at the age of four, received classical music training and performed on international stages. She has recalled practicing for more than four hours a day at the age of twelve and hoping to become a concert pianist, and she also studied music performance in college. She graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in biochemistry.⁠[1][2][3]

Wu began her investing career at Insight Venture Partners, where the companies she worked with included JD.com, Zumba, TumblrTumblrTumblr is a blogging and social platform founded in New York by David Karp in 2007, built mainly around images, short posts, and reblogs. Yahoo acquired Tumblr for about $1.1 billion in 2013, after which it passed with Yahoo into Verizon’s ownership; in 2019 Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, acquired Tumblr from Verizon.Open the full entry, Smartsheet and DrillingInfo. She later served as senior vice president of finance at the marketing software company NewsCred (later known as Welcome) and worked in finance and operations at Discovery.⁠[3][2][4][5]

Based in Singapore for a time, she served as chief financial officer and senior vice president of business operations for Discovery’s Asia-Pacific business, and then led finance for its global digital and sports businesses. These roles gave her experience of internal corporate operations and of Asian markets before she moved into venture capital.⁠[5][4]

On June 13, 2019, Lightspeed Venture Partners announced that Amy Wu had joined its growth investment team. At the firm she focused on consumer, gaming and blockchain, and the companies she worked on included Epic GamesEpic GamesEpic Games is a video game and software company headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991, known for the Unreal Engine game engine, Fortnite and the Epic Games Store, and widely noted for its antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google.Open the full entry, Weee!, Webull, Faraway, Arbitrum and Alchemy.⁠[5][4]

Lightspeed’s 2019 introduction noted that Wu had climbed twelve mountains higher than 10,000 feet. She has also long kept up the piano and gaming as hobbies, and later linked her musical training to her interest in AI creative tools.⁠[5][1]

On January 14, 2022, FTX announced the launch of FTX Ventures, a $2 billion fund, with Amy Wu in charge of venture investments, gaming, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial partnerships. The announcement said the fund would invest across funding stages, in areas including social, gaming, fintech, software and healthcare.⁠[6]

The fund launched with a team of eight, including general partner Ramnik Arora and adviser Armani FerranteArmani FerranteArmani Ferrante is a crypto entrepreneur and software engineer, the author of the Solana development framework Anchor, and the founder of Coral; he is currently founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Backpack and leads the NFT collection Mad Lads. In 2025, Backpack acquired FTX EU, which holds a MiFID II license.Open the full entry. Wu had earlier led Lightspeed’s investment in FTX. Menlo’s later announcement of her appointment listed projects she worked on at FTX Ventures, including Sui, Soba Studios, Tripledot Studios, Yuga LabsYuga LabsYuga Labs is a company that develops NFT brands, digital content, and virtual worlds; it launched Bored Ape Yacht Club in 2021, and its businesses include BAYC-related collections and Otherside, along with participation in building the ApeChain ecosystem. The company acquired CryptoPunks, Meebits, Moonbirds, and 10KTF, and later transferred these projects one after another. In 2026, Michael Figge became chief executive officer and Greg Solano became chairman.Open the full entry and Doodles.⁠[6][4]

Episode 345 of Unchained, released on April 26, 2022, introduced Amy Wu as head of ventures and gaming at FTX, a board member of ApeCoin DAO and an investor in Yuga Labs. The conversation covered Web3 gaming, traditional game companies adopting NFTs, user experience and DAO governance.⁠[7]

On November 11, 2022, The Information reported that Amy Wu had resigned as head of FTX Ventures. At the time, FTX and more than 100 affiliated entities were filing for bankruptcy protection.⁠[8][9]

The Real v. Yuga Labs class action complaint, filed on December 8, 2022, named Amy Wu as one of the defendants. The plaintiffs made allegations concerning the sale and promotion of Yuga-related digital assets and securities law issues, and referred to her role in ApeCoin governance; these are the plaintiffs’ allegations. The case later went through amended complaints and motions to dismiss.⁠[10][11]

On June 15, 2023, Menlo Ventures announced that Amy Wu had become a partner, to expand its consumer technology investing and build a stronger investing presence in New York. She was given a mandate to look for early-stage consumer opportunities created by technology shifts such as gaming, blockchain and generative AI.⁠[4]

In a written interview with Gold House, Amy Wu said that her work at Insight, Discovery and Lightspeed had successively brought her into contact with Asian markets, including growth investing in China and India. She values founders’ resilience, their motivation for entering a particular market and a deep understanding of their customers, and believes that investors also need to prove they can bring unique value to founders.⁠[2]

She advises first understanding the culture on joining a new company, achieving small wins in the first 90 days and continuing to maintain relationships with colleagues. Speaking about her experience after FTX’s collapse, she described feeling deceived and defeated, and thanked her family, friends and founders for their support. On AI, she believes conversational tools can lower the barriers to use, but unequal access to learning opportunities will still affect who benefits.⁠[2]

The portfolio records on her Menlo website profile show that the 2024 investments Amy Wu partnered on included HiggsfieldHiggsfieldHiggsfield is an AI visual-content company founded in 2023 and headquartered in San Francisco. Beginning with the Diffuse mobile app, it developed a browser-based production platform for creators, marketing teams and enterprises, combining proprietary and third-party models for images, video, storyboards, character consistency and multi-step creative work.Open the full entry, Alta, Good Job Games, Brain Jar Games, Slingshot AI, Daze and Delphi, covering video generation, personal styling, gaming, mental health, social and digital knowledge services. Companies added in 2025 included ShopMy and Suno, and in 2026 Nectar Social.⁠[3]

On February 18, 2025, fomo announced a $2 million pre-seed round, saying it was backed by more than 140 angel investors, and named Amy Wu as an angel investor in its public list. The announcement did not disclose the amount she invested personally.⁠[12]

On June 5, 2025, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) announced that Amy Wu Martin was among eight people joining its board, with terms running from 2025 to 2029. The association’s current board directory still lists her as serving on behalf of Menlo Ventures.⁠[13][14]

On June 26, 2025, Amy Wu Martin, together with Shawn Carolan, C.C. Gong and Sam Borja, published the co-authored report “2025: The State of Consumer AI.” The report was based on a survey of 5,031 U.S.United StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry adults conducted by Menlo and Morning Consult in April 2025; 61% of respondents said they had used AI in the past six months. The report’s global user figures are estimates, and the survey’s scope also included older tools such as voice assistants.⁠[15]

The report argued that opportunities in consumer AI come from personal tasks that are frequent, tedious and require trust; users usually try general-purpose assistants first, so specialized products need to offer a clearly better experience. The authors expected growth in specialized tools, end-to-end automation, multiplayer interaction, voice and home robots, and judged that business models would expand to advertising, transaction fees and platform commissions.⁠[15]

On September 30, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, dismissing the second amended complaint while allowing the plaintiffs to amend again. The court found that the plaintiffs had not adequately alleged that the digital assets at issue met several elements of the Howey test. A footnote to the order expressly lists Amy Wu among the defendants who joined the motion.⁠[11]

On November 19, 2025, a Menlo announcement signed by Amy Wu Martin and others said that Menlo had led Suno’s $250 million Series C, with Lightspeed and Matrix PartnersMatrix PartnersMatrix Partners, now branded Matrix, is a US early-stage venture capital firm with roots in Hellman, Ferri Investment Associates, established in 1977. Matrix was founded in 1982 and invests in technology companies from the idea stage through Series A.Open the full entry also participating. She recalled first meeting Suno co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman at the Cerebral Valley Summit in 2024, and her own experience of creating songs with the product.⁠[1]

She summarized the case for investing in Suno as lowering the barriers to making music, turning ordinary listeners into creators, and forming a new consumer behavior through creating, sharing and repeated use. The announcement also introduced Suno Studio for professional users, showing that the product’s direction covers both mass creation and multitrack production.⁠[1]

On February 11, 2026, a Law360 feature published by Skadden said that the Yuga Labs case was continuing, with a motion to dismiss the further amended complaint still awaiting the court’s decision. The 2025 ruling allowing the plaintiffs to amend their complaint did not end the litigation as a whole.⁠[16]

On May 14, 2026, Nectar Social announced a $30 million Series A led by Menlo Ventures and the Anthology FundAnthology FundAnthology Fund is a $100 million AI investment initiative launched by Menlo Ventures and Anthropic in 2024 and financed by Menlo. It backs early-stage AI companies with capital, Anthropic resources and company-building support, with scope for follow-on investments.Open the full entry, which Menlo set up in partnership with AnthropicAnthropicAnthropic is an artificial intelligence research and product company founded in 2021 that develops the Claude models, assistant, and tools such as Claude Code, and operates as a public benefit corporation. Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei are its co-founders, and its research covers model safety, interpretability, and steerability.Open the full entry, with participation from True Ventures, GV, Kinship Ventures and others. Amy Wu Martin joined the board with the round.⁠[17]

Wu and C.C. Gong’s investment essay focuses on brand marketing shifting from visible advertising channels to direct messages, comments and community conversations. They argue that AI agents can connect the understanding of social conversations, brand voice, engagement execution and revenue attribution, while brands remain responsible for strategy and approvals.⁠[18]

On June 3, 2026, Amy Wu Martin announced in a signed post that Menlo was participating in Suno’s new funding round of more than $400 million, led by Bond Capital at a valuation of $5.4 billion. She sees creation itself becoming entertainment as the core behavior of a new consumer platform, and believes that as AI lowers the barriers of skill and time, more ordinary users will shift from watching content to creating it.⁠[19]

On August 17, 2026, Higgsfield announced a $400 million Series B led by DST GlobalDST GlobalDST Global is a technology investment firm founded by Yuri Milner in 2009 that focuses on growth-stage investments in internet companies worldwide; it has invested in companies including Facebook, Twitter, Alibaba, JD.com, Airbnb and Spotify, and in 2026 led the US$400 million Series B round of the AI visual content company Higgsfield.Open the full entry at a valuation of $5.4 billion. On her own X account, Amy Wu Martin recalled Menlo leading the company’s seed round and reposted the funding news.⁠[20][21]

Menlo Ventures: Partner. Official link: https://menlovc.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][22]

Lightspeed Venture Partners: Former partner. Official link: https://lsvp.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[5][23]

Insight Partners: Early career. Official link: https://www.insightpartners.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[4][24]

NVCA: Director. Official link: https://nvca.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14][25]

Harvard University: B.A. in biochemistry. Official link: https://www.harvard.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][26]

Nectar Social: Director and portfolio company. Official link: https://www.nectarsocial.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[17][27]

Higgsfield: Menlo portfolio company. Official link: https://higgsfield.ai/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][28]

Suno: Menlo portfolio company. Official link: https://suno.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[1][29]

ShopMy: Menlo portfolio company. Official link: https://shopmy.us/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][30]

Alta: Menlo portfolio company. Official link: https://www.altadaily.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][31]

Good Job Games: Menlo portfolio company. Official link: https://www.goodjobgames.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][32]

Brain Jar Games: Menlo portfolio company. Official link: https://www.brainjar.games/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][33]

Slingshot AI: Menlo portfolio company. Official link: https://www.talktoash.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][34]

Daze: Menlo portfolio company. Official link: https://daze.chat/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][35]

Delphi: Menlo portfolio company. Official link: https://www.delphi.ai/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3][36]

fomo: Angel investor. Official link: https://fomo.family/ (opens in a new window)⁠[12][37]

X account: https://x.com/amywumartin (opens in a new window).⁠[21]