Gil Elbaz
About Gil Elbaz
Gil Elbaz studied at Caltech, earning a bachelor's degree in engineering and applied science and economics. He worked in engineering roles at IBM, Sybase and SGI. In 1998 he co-founded Applied Semantics with his brother Eytan Elbaz and Adam Weissman. The company built AdSense and other contextual advertising products.
Google acquired Applied Semantics in 2003. Elbaz stayed on as Director of Engineering for Google's Santa Monica office. In 2007 he left to found Factual, a Los Angeles data company, and served as its CEO. Factual merged with Foursquare in 2020, and he sits on the combined company's board.
Elbaz also founded the Common Crawl Foundation, a non-profit that provides a free, petabyte-scale web crawl, and serves as its chairman. He is a Caltech trustee and sits on the board of the X Prize Foundation. He is a co-founder and managing partner of TenOneTen Ventures in Los Angeles, alongside David Waxman.
Elbaz describes himself as an active angel investor. Speaker bios list Climate Corp (acquired by Monsanto), Goodreads (acquired by Amazon), Wish, Procore, Scopely and Kaggle (acquired by Google) among his notable investments. Investment years are not given in those bios.
Crunchbase lists 18 personal investments for him, and PitchBook lists 41 investments for "Gilad Elbaz" as an angel. The two databases count differently, so treat these totals as approximate. His Crunchbase record also shows participation in a Series A in Opposing Views, a media company founded by his brother Eytan.
On the Lounge deals desk, Elbaz appears in Nyne.ai's $5.3M seed round, announced in March 2026. Wischoff Ventures and South Park Commons led the round, and Elbaz took part as an angel.
Nyne builds data infrastructure that connects people's public digital footprints, so AI agents have context about the humans they act for. Press coverage reported roughly 9 employees and nearly $1M in annual recurring revenue before the announcement.
Elbaz's AI-related work also includes Common Crawl. TenOneTen's site says its web data has underpinned advances in AI, including GPT, Stable Diffusion and DALL-E.
On the TenOneTen Ventures team page, Elbaz lists his areas of focus as FinTech, data analytics, AdTech and ClimateTech. TenOneTen describes itself as a firm that backs start-ups applying data and technology to disrupt existing industries. His recent public angel round is a seed deal.
He is based in Los Angeles. He has not published a personal check size or stage requirements that we could find. In a podcast he said founders should mentally commit to a 10-year plan before starting a company.
- Nyne.ai: data infrastructure that gives AI agents context about people; $5.3M seed announced March 2026.
- Climate Corp: climate and agriculture data company, acquired by Monsanto; investment year not public.
- Goodreads: book community, acquired by Amazon; investment year not public.
- Kaggle: data science community, acquired by Google; investment year not public.
- Wish: e-commerce marketplace; investment year not public.
- Procore: construction software; investment year not public.
- Scopely: mobile gaming company co-founded by Eytan Elbaz; investment year not public.
- Opposing Views: media company founded by Eytan Elbaz; Series A participation listed on Crunchbase.
Investing activity
Gil Elbaz appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $5M. The most recent is Nyne.ai (Seed, $5.3M, Mar 2026).
Gil Elbaz most often invests alongside South Park Commons, Wischoff Ventures, Karman Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Gil Elbaz
Does Gil Elbaz invest in AI startups?
Yes. He participated as an angel in Nyne.ai's $5.3M seed round in March 2026. Nyne builds data infrastructure for AI agents. He also founded Common Crawl, whose web data has been used in AI research.
What is Gil Elbaz's angel check size?
He has not made a check size public, and the sources we found do not give one. Round sizes for his deals are public, but his own amount is not.
What stage does Gil Elbaz invest in?
His most recent public deal, Nyne.ai, is a seed round. Crunchbase also lists a Series A in Opposing Views. No stage restrictions have been published.
What sectors does Gil Elbaz focus on?
His TenOneTen Ventures profile lists FinTech, data analytics, AdTech and ClimateTech. His angel portfolio also includes marketplace, software and gaming companies.
Who is Gil Elbaz?
He co-founded Applied Semantics, which built AdSense and was acquired by Google in 2003. He later founded Factual, which merged with Foursquare in 2020. He also founded the Common Crawl Foundation and co-founded TenOneTen Ventures.
Is Gil Elbaz the same person as the Datagen co-founder?
No. A different Gil Elbaz is co-founder and CTO of Datagen Technologies in New York. The angel investor on this page is the Applied Semantics, Factual and TenOneTen founder based in Los Angeles.
Is Gil Elbaz an angel investor?
Yes. Gil Elbaz invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Gil Elbaz invested in?
Gil Elbaz's AI investments include Nyne.ai. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Gil Elbaz invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Gil Elbaz has invested at Seed, with a median round of $5M.
Who does Gil Elbaz co-invest with?
Gil Elbaz's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are South Park Commons (1 deal), Wischoff Ventures (1 deal), Karman Ventures (1 deal), Bain Capital Ventures (1 deal) and Soleio Cuervo (1 deal).