Barney Pell

Barney Pell holds a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford (1989) and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cambridge (1993), where he was a Marshall Scholar. From 1993 to 1998 he worked at NASA Ames as a Principal Investigator and Senior Computer Scientist, and he later managed an advanced IT R&D group there. He was architect of the Remote Agent experiment on Deep Space 1, the first AI system to fly onboard and control a deep space probe. Remote Agent won NASA's software of the year award in 1999. His NASA work also included Clarissa, the first spoken dialog system in space, and software supporting the Mars Exploration Rovers mission.

Pell left NASA in 2005 to become an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mayfield. There he founded Powerset, a natural-language search company. Microsoft acquired Powerset on July 1, 2008, for a reported $100 million. He stayed at Microsoft as a search strategist and evangelist for Bing, then as an architect and development manager for local and mobile search, and left in September 2011 to return to startups full-time.

He co-founded Moon Express, which builds autonomous robotic lunar landers, and served as its Vice Chairman. He co-founded LocoMobi (formerly QuickPay), a parking and mobility technology company, and chaired it. He is Associate Founder and a Trustee of Singularity University, and his Crunchbase role is Associate Founder there. He is also a Fellow at Creative Destruction Lab and a Venture Partner at Radical Ventures, a VC focused on early-stage deep tech and AI. He has also served as Chairman of the Science Advisory Board at Figure Eight.

Pell describes himself as an active startup investor and advisor with over 200 investments (Creative Destruction Lab). Crunchbase lists a narrower set: 26 investments, 21 portfolio companies, 8 exits (2 by IPO) and no lead investments. The two figures use different definitions, and Crunchbase only counts what has been publicly recorded. The no-lead record suggests he typically joins rounds led by others. Crunchbase's most recent listed investment is the pre-seed round of Workwolf.

His own bio names early angel investments and advisory roles at Getaround, Robotex, Halcyon Molecular, SpaceX and CrowdFlower. It also names startups that were later acquired: Aardvark (Google), Hot Potato (Facebook), Etacts (Salesforce), Movity (Trulia) and AppJet, plus LinkedIn, which went public. Wikipedia also lists QuestBridge and BrandYourself among the startups he advised.

He also runs an AngelList syndicate. His note there says he invites co-investors to join his deals and that he will try to syndicate all of them. The page shows 5 expected deals per year and 443 LPs who have invested.

Pell's investments in AI companies, mostly in Canada and the US, include:

Ada: an AI customer-service automation company. Pitchbook dates his investment to December 2018.

Canvass Analytics: a machine-learning company for industrial customers. In August 2018 he posted on X that he was a mentor and investor.

Figure Eight (formerly CrowdFlower): a machine-learning data company. He advised it early and later chaired its Science Advisory Board. Appen acquired it.

Validere: a company for the oil and gas industry. In October 2018 he posted that he was an investor and early mentor through Creative Destruction Lab.

Cognizer AI: Pitchbook lists him as a board member.

He is also a mentor and Fellow at Creative Destruction Lab, which supports science-based and AI startups. Radical Ventures, where he is a Venture Partner, focuses on early-stage AI and deep tech.

Public sources describe Pell's focus as early-stage companies using advanced technology, especially AI, machine learning, robotics, space and deep tech. His portfolio also includes marketplaces, health, agtech and enterprise software. Raizer lists him at pre-seed, seed and Series A, and Tracxn lists his investments mainly in the US and Canada. His investments run from Seed to Series A, with a few later-stage deals such as Plantiga in 2021 according to Pitchbook.

He has not published a check size. Third-party databases give varying or unverified ranges, so none are repeated here. He does not appear to lead rounds. His CDL bio says he likes to help bring advanced technology and big ideas into real applications and markets.

• Ada: AI customer-service automation; he invested around its December 2018 Series A.
• Canvass Analytics: machine learning for industrial companies; he was a mentor and investor in 2018.
• Figure Eight (CrowdFlower): machine-learning data platform, later acquired by Appen; he advised it and chaired its Science Advisory Board.
• Validere: product-quality tools for oil and gas; he invested through Creative Destruction Lab, around 2018.
• Ecoation: greenhouse crop-monitoring company; he invested around March 2019.
• Careteam Technologies: health-tech company; he took part in its seed round in early 2019.
• Optina Diagnostics: diagnostics company; he took part in its October 2018 seed round.
• SpaceX: early angel investment named in his bio.
• Getaround: car-sharing marketplace, named in his bio as an angel investment.
• Moon Express: lunar lander company he co-founded.
• LocoMobi: parking technology company he co-founded and chaired.

• crunchbase.com/person/barney-pell
• creativedestructionlab.com/mentors/barney-pell
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Pell
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerset_(company))
• prnewswire.com/news-releases/barney-pell-silicon-valley-entrepreneur-a
• venture.angellist.com/barneyp/syndicate
• pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/106391-08
• tracxn.com/d/people/barney-pell/__VGn5bn3QpSOXUZJ7LJtL44Zk2jgjMBNDZsfR