Arash Ferdowsi
About Arash Ferdowsi
Arash Ferdowsi co-founded Dropbox in 2007 with Drew Houston, whom he met at MIT. He grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, and studied electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He left before finishing to build Dropbox. Crunchbase also lists a software engineering internship at Google before that.
At Dropbox he served as CTO until 2016 and stayed on the board through 2020. Crunchbase lists him as based in New York, and his Dropbox role there as Co-Founder starting April 2007. Crunchbase shows no companies founded by him beyond Dropbox.
Since leaving day-to-day work at Dropbox he has invested personally in early-stage companies. PitchBook also lists advisory roles at Paramark and Wispr Flow.
Crunchbase counts 73 investments in the data Lounge holds, with 0 lead investments and 0 exits. Other trackers report different totals. The public Crunchbase page has shown 108 investments, and PitchBook lists 100 investments, so treat any single count as approximate.
He usually joins rounds led by institutional funds. Reducto's seed was led by First Round Capital, and Gumloop's seed was also led by First Round. In both announcements he is named among the participating founder-angels. Seedtable has recorded stage data for 26 of his deals: 17 seed, 6 Series A and 2 Series B. That suggests he mostly enters at seed and sometimes invests again in later rounds.
His recent Crunchbase activity includes rounds announced in September and October 2025 for Wild Moose, Oneleet, DianaHR and CuspAI. Crunchbase also shows earlier seed rounds in Clockwork, Frigade and Onyx (formerly Danswer).
Crunchbase counts 46 AI investments since 2023. Its AI portfolio for him includes Capsule, Bezi, Ampersand, Warp, Meticulous, Kapital, Reflex Robotics, Extropic AI, Mastra, Coframe, Gumloop and Reducto.
Two of these have public details. Gumloop, a platform for building AI workflows without code, announced a $3.1M seed in July 2024 that named him as a participant. Reducto, which builds document parsing for LLMs, announced an $8.4M seed round that also named him.
The list covers AI applications, developer-facing AI tooling and robotics and hardware, so he is not limited to one layer of the stack.
Public profiles describe him as an angel investor in early-stage technology. The sectors named most often are developer tools, SMB and enterprise software, security, cloud infrastructure, AI, logistics, fintech and future-of-work products. Lounge's existing note also mentions hardware companies. Seedtable's recorded deals are mostly seed, with some Series A and Series B.
He is based in New York, and some third-party profiles also note activity in the San Francisco Bay Area. Portfolio companies are in several countries. For example, Gumloop was announced from Vancouver.
We found no check size or stated investment criteria from Ferdowsi himself. Some aggregator sites show estimated ranges, but we have not confirmed them and do not publish them here. Founders should treat check size as unknown until they ask.
- crunchbase.com/person/arash-ferdowsi
- crunchbase.com/person/5ebfc8db-c498-b5d8-4066-c4584bd96d18
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arash_Ferdowsi
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/167876-29
- seedtable.com/people/arash-ferdowsi
- reducto.ai/blog/seed-round
- bctechnology.com/news/2024/7/25/AI-Automation-Startup-Gumloop-Closes-3.cfm)
- crunchbase.com/person/arash-ferdowsi/person_overview_investor/timeline
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Arash Ferdowsi has made 73 investments according to Crunchbase. 46 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Capsule, Bezi, Ampersand, Warp and Meticulous.
Arash Ferdowsi appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $4M. The most recent is Gamgee (Seed, $4M, Aug 2026).
Arash Ferdowsi most often invests alongside Founders Fund, Celine Halioua and Y Combinator, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Arash Ferdowsi
Who is Arash Ferdowsi?
He is a co-founder of Dropbox, which he started in 2007 with Drew Houston after studying at MIT. He was CTO until 2016 and stayed on the board through 2020. He now invests as an angel.
What stage does Arash Ferdowsi invest in?
Mostly seed. Seedtable's recorded deals show 17 seed, 6 Series A and 2 Series B. He typically joins rounds led by institutional funds, as in Reducto's and Gumloop's seed rounds.
Does Arash Ferdowsi invest in AI startups?
Yes. Crunchbase counts 46 AI investments since 2023. They include Gumloop, Reducto, Mastra, Coframe, Reflex Robotics and Extropic AI.
What is Arash Ferdowsi's check size?
He has not publicly stated one, and we found no reliable source for it. Some aggregators show estimated ranges, but these are unconfirmed.
Does Arash Ferdowsi lead rounds?
Crunchbase shows 0 lead investments. Announcements we found, including Gumloop's and Reducto's, list him as a participating angel alongside a lead fund.
How can founders reach Arash Ferdowsi?
His LinkedIn profile is the most reliable public channel. We did not find a personal website or a confirmed X account.
Is Arash Ferdowsi an angel investor?
Yes. Arash Ferdowsi invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 73 investments.
What AI companies has Arash Ferdowsi invested in?
Arash Ferdowsi's AI investments include Capsule, Bezi, Ampersand, Warp, Meticulous, Kapital, Reflex Robotics and Extropic AI. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Arash Ferdowsi based?
Arash Ferdowsi is based in New York, United States.
What stage does Arash Ferdowsi invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Arash Ferdowsi has invested at Seed, with a median round of $4M.