Google’s Jeff Dean quietly powers the AI startup ecosystem

One of the familiar names has been keeping pop-ups in my inbox recently, but not in the expected way. I keep watching Jeff Dean amid a flood of pitches promoting hot new AI startups. Yes, that Jeff Dean: Google’s chief scientist and longtime AI leader.

Dean, best known for co-founding Google Brain and leading the company’s AI research since the early days of Deep Learning, has also emerged as a prolific angel investor. Over the past two years, he quietly supported a whopping 37 AI startups, including Danologyai, Emerald AI, Workhelix, Roboflow, Profluent Bio, Sakana AI, LaTent Labs, P-1, World Labs and Yutori. Most of his investments are often early stages before Series A, when the company is still in stealth or emerging from the lab. Dean, for example, was involved in the seed rounds for legal AI startup Harvey.

Dean joined Google X in 2011, exploring the deep neural network field of the time, leading Google Brain in 2012, and was named head of Google’s AI division in 2018. Today, he holds the title of Chief Scientist at both Google Research and Google Deepmind.

But he’s not a newcomer in angel investment. As early as 2016, he supported Poplar Homes, a high-tech property management company that Evernest acquired in early 2025.

However, over the past two years, Dean’s investment activities have taken a clearer look. It reflects both his deep technical roots and his vision of where AI is heading. He helps startups build core AI tools, focusing specifically on developer platforms, LLM infrastructure and training efficiency. He also bets on a new generation of applications built natively for the LLM era, even if he’s outside the Google ecosystem.

Another clear theme: AI for science. Dean helps businesses apply AI to biology, chemistry and genomics issues. This is a natural extension of the “AI for Scientific Discovery” thread that was defending both Google Brain and DeepMind. In particular, it is an extension of DeepMind’s groundbreaking system for predicting protein structures that form the basis of modern computational biology.

Finally, Dean consistently supports a technical founding team, often with academic pedigree or open source credentials. Many are led by former researchers from Google, Deepmind, Openai or top universities. For example, the three co-founders of Yutori came from all Meta However, he was a former researcher and faculty member at Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, some of Dean’s bets are in areas that overlap or compete with Google’s core business. For example, embarrassment challenges Google search. Therefore, Dean is surprisingly independent of his investment despite continuing to hold one of the most advanced AI roles at Google.

“He’s very active,” said Dylan Reid, a partner at Zetta Venture Partners, who has invested in three Dean bio+AI companies. “He is a true legend of AI and a leading figure in Google’s kind of AI.”

So, his name “I think that as an investor, someone like Jeff will ensure (the visionary AI for your cap table),” Reid added. “This is a sign that someone with really advanced technology saw this and decided it was interesting.”

Sharon Goldman
X: @sharongoldman
Email: Sharon.goldman@fortune.com
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Venture deals

– Xelixthe developers of Accounts Payable Space, a New York City-based AI software developer, raised $160 million in Series B funding. Insight partner Leading the round and participating passion capital and localglobe.

– You fundamentally have itthe New York City-based Automated Lab Materials R&D developer raised $55 million in seed rounds. RTX Venture Leading the round and participating nvidia, Alleycorpand others.

– Rune technologythe Arlington, Virginia-based AI-enabled forecasting software developer for military logistics, has raised $24 million in Series A funding. human capital Leading the round and participating Pax VC, Washington Port partnerand existing investors.

– nexxa.aiThe Sunnyvale, California-based company is developing AI technology for industrial companies and has raised $4.4 million in seed funding. a16z speedrun Leading the round and participating Enhancement Venture, propeller Venture, plug and playand others.

– crewPhoenix, Arizona-based home services platform, designed for short-term rental owners, raised $3 million in seed funding. Ret Ventures Leading the round and participating Tandem Venture, element Venture, Forever 6and Convoy Venture.

– Lead Storya New York City-based news streaming and aggregation platform raised $2.8 million in seed funding. checker media Leading the round and participating Horizon Fund for American Public Media Group Existing investors.

– TipND-based NO-CODE AI Agent Builder raised $2 million in funding. homemade Venture Leading the round and participating M25, Gener8tor 1889, Cambrian Ventureand Jutta Steiner.

Private Equity

– A consortium of investors led by Goldman Sax Alternatives I agreed to acquire a majority stake NavexOswego-based developer of SaaS for ethics, risk and compliance management; BC Partner. Financial conditions have not been disclosed.

– Dark Raceportfolio company Toma Bravoobtained Mira safetyHarmony, Pennsylvania’s provider of network traffic visibility solutions. Financial conditions have not been disclosed.

– longrange capital I’ve got it US Synthetic Corporationa provider of highly designed polycrystalline diamond (PCD) technology based in Orem, Utah; Championx Co., Ltd..

Fund + Fund Fund

– Omega Funda Boston, Massachusetts-based venture capital firm raised $647 million for its eighth fund focused on investing in life science companies that address unmet medical needs.