Welcome to our list of top AI angel investors! In this article, we will highlight some of the leading individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the artificial intelligence industry through their angel investing activities. These investors have played a crucial role in supporting the growth and development of innovative AI startups, and their insights and expertise can be invaluable for entrepreneurs looking to break into the field.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur seeking funding for your AI venture, or simply interested in learning about the leading players in the AI investment space, this list is sure to be a valuable resource.
Our Criteria for selecting top AI Angel Investors
- Track record of successful investments in AI-related companies or startups.
- Strong network or connections within the AI industry, including with other investors and industry experts.
- Demonstrated understanding of the technical and business aspects of AI and how it can be applied in different industries.
- Ability to provide valuable guidance and mentorship to AI startups.
- Willingness to actively engage with portfolio companies and provide support beyond just financial investment.
- Financial resources and willingness to make significant investments in AI startups.
- Reputation for being a supportive and fair investor.
- Active involvement in the AI community, including through speaking at events, writing articles, or participating in industry organizations.
- Proven ability to identify and invest in high-potential AI startups at an early stage.
Diverse investment portfolio that includes a mix of AI and non-AI related investments.
List of Top AI Angel Investors
Balaji S. Srinivasan is an American entrepreneur and investor born on May 24, 1980. He is known for co-founding Counsyl and serving as the CTO of Coinbase. He was also a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
According to his crunchbase profile, Edward Lando is the Managing Partner at Pareto Holdings and has made 301 investments, with 22 resulting in IPOs.
Fabrice Grinda, born on August 3, 1974, is a French entrepreneur, blogger for Business Insider, and super angel with over 253investments globally, including Alibaba Group, Airbnb, Beepi, FanDuel, Palantir, and Windeln. Grinda is the co-founder and former CEO of Aucland, Zingy, and OLX and frequently speaks at conferences on technology trends, emerging markets, and investing.
Naval Ravikant is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor, known for co-founding, chairing, and formerly serving as CEO of AngelList. He has invested in over 200 early-stage companies, including Uber, FourSquare, Twitter, Wish.com, Poshmark, Postmates, Thumbtack, Notion, SnapLogic, Opendoor, Clubhouse, Stack Overflow, Bolt, OpenDNS, Yammer, and Clearview AI. His investments have resulted in over 70 exits and more than 10 “unicorn” companies. Ravikant is also a Fellow of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship and hosts a podcast where he offers advice on health, wealth, and happiness.
Mark Cuban, born on July 31, 1958, is an American entrepreneur, television personality, and media proprietor with a net worth estimated at $4.8 billion by Forbes. He is ranked 177th on the 2020 Forbes 400 list. Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team and co-owner of 2929 Entertainment. He is also one of the main investors on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank.
Shah co-founded FreeCharge in 2010 with Sandeep Tandon, recognizing the potential for online recharging in a growing market. In April 2015, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal for an estimated $400 million, and Shah was appointed as the new CEO. He also led the acquisitions of Wishberg and Preburn in 2014. Shah is an active angel investor in a number of startups, including Innov8, Spinny, Zepo, Unacademy, and Bharat Bazaar.
Daniel Curran is the Founder and CEO of CustEx. He previously held the positions of Vice President and acting COO at WDC-Connex at Western Digital. Curran also serves on the board and as an advisor for several organizations, including GC Plus, Nickelytics, and Allset. He has 38 exits to his credit, with notable companies including Zirtual, ZenSports, and WedPics.
Charlie Songhurst is a US-based, British-born angel investor and advisor who has made personal investments in approximately 500 companies throughout his career, mostly in Europe. He previously held senior positions at Microsoft and is a founding partner of the long-short equity hedge fund Katana Capital. He also runs the Songhurst Group, which holds assets in various private companies.
Scott Belsky is an American entrepreneur, author, and early-stage investor known for co-creating the online portfolio platform Behance. In 2010, he was named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.” In 2012, Behance was acquired by Adobe, where Belsky became VP of Products, Mobile, and Community. He left Adobe in 2016 to join Benchmark as a general partner, but returned to Adobe in 2017 as Chief Product Officer and Executive VP for Adobe Creative Cloud. Belsky is also an early-stage investor and advisor to companies including Uber, Warby Parker, Pinterest, Periscope, and Sweetgreen.
Marc Benioff is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Salesforce, an enterprise cloud computing company. In 2018, he acquired Time magazine. Benioff is known for his leadership in the technology industry and his commitment to philanthropy and social justice issues.
Paul Buchheit is an American computer engineer and entrepreneur known for creating Gmail. He also developed the prototype for Google AdSense and suggested the company’s now-famous motto, “Don’t be evil.” Buchheit has made significant contributions to the technology industry and is well-respected for his work on Google’s products and culture.
Gokul Rajaram is the Product and Business Helper at Doordash and currently serves on the boards of Pinterest and Coinbase. He has made 165 investments, with his latest being a seed round for Oyster on December 13, 2022. Rajaram has 11 exits to his credit, with notable companies including Worklete, Turvo, and Troops.
Alexis Ohanian is an Armenian American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and executive chairman of Reddit, as well as the co-founder of Initialized Capital, a venture capital firm. He has also helped launch the travel search website Hipmunk and the social enterprise Breadpig, and was a partner at Y Combinator. As of 2019, Forbes estimated Ohanian’s net worth at $70 million. He lives in Florida with his wife, tennis player Serena Williams, and their daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian.
Shervin Pishevar is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder of Hyperloop One and Sherpa Capital, and has invested in many companies such as Airbnb, Uber, and Slack. Pishevar was previously a managing director at Menlo Ventures, where he led investments in Warby Parker, Tumblr, and Uber. He has also founded several technology companies, including webs.com and WebOS. Pishevar has received several awards and honors, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and appointment to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board by former President Barack Obama.
Andrej Karpathy is a prominent figure in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Currently associated with OpenAI, he has a background as the former Director of AI at Tesla and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford. Known for his work in training large deep neural networks, Karpathy has a significant online presence, particularly on Twitter with over 856,000 followers. His interests span various AI-related topics, as evident from his posts covering language models, image generation, and reflections on centralization versus decentralization. Karpathy often shares insights into cutting-edge AI developments and engages with the tech community through platforms like Twitter and YouTube.
