Norwest raises its largest fund at $4 billion, targeting AI

The firm, backed solely by Wells Fargo, said Thursday it is looking to invest in AI startups serving consumer, healthcare and technology industries. Norwest also plans to keep expanding investments in physical AI, voice AI, agentic cybersecurity and aerospace.

“We’re taking a broad approach to AI because its impact is broad,” Jeff Crowe, a senior managing partner at Norwest, told TechCrunch. He said AI could affect many layers of enterprise, consumer and healthcare solutions, from networking and enterprise IT to applications. Crowe said the firm is especially interested in early-stage companies developing AI-native applications and infrastructure, physical AI, domain-specific models and cybersecurity solutions.

Recent investments include Coval, which builds tools to test and evaluate AI agents, and Generalist AI, a startup developing foundation models for robots. Norwest has also backed Plaid, Spotify, Uber and Vuori.

The new fund follows the firm’s 17th, a $3 billion raise that closed in 2024. Since that fund’s launch, Norwest has made more than 87 investments.