Brian Lent
About Brian Lent
Brian Lent is based in Bellevue, Washington. His career is in data mining, machine learning and AI. His Plunk bio describes him as working in the field for more than three decades. He studied computer science at Stanford University, where, according to that bio, he did his Masters and PhD candidacy. In 1995 he co-founded the Stanford research lab MiDAS with fellow student Sergey Brin. Before Stanford he founded Micro Revelations, a maker of machine-learning-based PC games that Electronic Arts acquired.
He worked at IBM and at Junglee, which Amazon acquired. According to the Plunk bio, he created Amazon's first data mining group there. He then founded Intelligent Results, which applied predictive analytics and natural language processing to financial services. Crunchbase says it was acquired by KKR. The Plunk bio says First Data Corporation acquired it.
Crunchbase lists him as Co-founder, CEO and CTO of Medio Systems from September 2004 to July 2014. Nokia acquired Medio in 2014. He was then Chief Technology Officer of HERE Technologies from 2014 to 2018. From April 2019 to October 2024 he was Co-Founder and CEO of Plunk, an AI-driven home analytics platform for residential real estate. Crunchbase notes Plunk was acquired by Home.AI. Crunchbase lists him as Chief Analytics & Data Officer at Auger from 2024. He has been a member of the founding board of the University of Washington Information School since 2015. Crunchbase counts 7 companies founded.
Crunchbase lists 9 investments and 8 portfolio companies for Brian Lent. It shows 0 lead investments and 0 exits. It classifies him as an individual/angel investor and investment partner whose investor stages are Seed, Early Stage Venture, Venture and Private Equity. The public sources we found name few of these investments. PitchBook records one: Zeotap, in January 2017.
He is also Managing Partner of YA6 Capital. Crunchbase describes it as an investment group of six family offices that coordinate investments. It lists Lent and Yotam Avrahami as founders. Crunchbase does not give the fund's size, and we found no public figures.
Lent's own work is in applied AI. At HERE he worked on computer vision and deep learning for mapping the physical world. At Plunk he worked with LLMs, computer vision and ML on residential real estate data. We did not find a public list of his AI investments by company and year. Founders should not assume a specific AI portfolio beyond what is listed below.
Crunchbase tags Lent as a Seed, Early Stage Venture, Venture and Private Equity investor. YA6 Capital describes its focus as energy, defense, aerospace, intelligent mobility, IoT and cybersecurity. It also says it makes dual-use investments across its network. These are the group's stated sectors, not a published statement of Lent's personal angel thesis.
His operating background suggests a fit with companies in data, AI and cloud or edge computing. His Crunchbase headline names those areas. We found no public statement from him on check size, preferred round or geography, so none is given here.
- Zeotap: customer data platform listed by PitchBook under business/productivity software. PitchBook dates his investment to January 2017.
- YA6 Capital: investment group of six family offices that Lent co-founded and leads as Managing Partner. It is not a portfolio company.
- Plunk: AI home analytics company he co-founded and ran as CEO from 2019 to 2024. Crunchbase says Home.AI acquired it. It is a company he founded, not an investment.
Investing activity
Brian Lent has made 9 investments according to Crunchbase across 8 portfolio companies, and has founded 7 companies.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Brian Lent
Who is Brian Lent?
Brian Lent is a technology executive and investor in Bellevue, Washington. He is Managing Partner of YA6 Capital and the former Co-Founder and CEO of Plunk. He was previously CTO of HERE Technologies and founded Medio Systems.
What stage does Brian Lent invest in?
Crunchbase lists his investor stages as Seed, Early Stage Venture, Venture and Private Equity. He has not publicly stated a preferred round.
What is Brian Lent's check size?
No check size is public. We did not find a stated range from him or from YA6 Capital.
What companies has Brian Lent invested in?
Crunchbase counts 9 investments across 8 portfolio companies, but the public sources we found name few of them. PitchBook lists Zeotap, from January 2017.
What is YA6 Capital?
Crunchbase describes YA6 Capital as an investment group of six family offices that coordinate investments. Its stated focus is energy, defense, aerospace, intelligent mobility, IoT and cybersecurity.
Should AI founders pitch Brian Lent?
His background in AI, data and edge computing is relevant to founders in those areas. YA6's stated sectors lean toward dual-use and infrastructure themes. Check his current activity before pitching, because his public investment record is thin.
Is Brian Lent an angel investor?
Yes. Brian Lent invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 9 investments.
Where is Brian Lent based?
Brian Lent is based in Bellevue, Washington, United States.
How can founders reach Brian Lent?
Founders on Lounge can see Brian Lent's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Brian Lent to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.