Ilan Twig
About Ilan Twig
Ilan Twig is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Navan, the travel and expense management company. He co-founded it in May 2015 with Ariel Cohen. Navan was originally called TripActions and went public in 2025. He oversees product development and engineering.
Before Navan, Twig and Cohen founded StreamOnce, a business multimedia integration platform that Jive Software acquired. Earlier, he led large R&D teams at Hewlett-Packard Software and Rockmelt. He has a B.S. in Computer Science from the Academic College of Tel-Aviv, Yaffo, and PitchBook lists an M.S. in Computer Science from the Open University of Israel.
At Navan he has led work on AI products, including the Ava assistant and Navan Cognition, a multi-agent AI framework. PitchBook also lists him as an advisor and guest committee member at Sarona Ventures.
Twig's public investing record is thin. PitBook lists one earlier angel investment, in the biotechnology company Efranat in March 2014. PitchBook shows the company as out of business. He has not published a portfolio page, and no check sizes or personal investment thesis are public.
In June 2026, Twig took part in Engram's $98 million round. Engram is a San Francisco startup building a learned memory layer for enterprise AI models. Its architecture separates a model's reasoning layer from its memory layer. Dr. Dan Biderman is co-founder and CEO.
The Lounge deals desk lists the round as Engram Seed. CB Insights labels it a Series A, so the round name differs by source. Calcalist reported the round was at a $600 million valuation. It named Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst and Sequoia among the investors. It also named Israeli founders including Assaf Rappaport of Wiz, along with Andrej Karpathy and Pieter Abbeel.
Twig has not publicly stated a stage, sector or check size. His one disclosed recent deal is in applied AI infrastructure, and his operating background is in enterprise software, engineering and AI products. Founders working on enterprise AI products or on reliability and cost of AI systems are the closest fit with what is visible. He has also invested alongside Israeli and Silicon Valley founders and funds.
- Engram: AI startup building a persistent memory layer for enterprise models. He joined the $98M round in June 2026.
- Efranat: biotechnology company. PitchBook records an investment in March 2014, and the company is out of business.
Investing activity
Ilan Twig appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $98M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $98M. The most recent is Engram (Seed, $98M, Jun 2026).
Ilan Twig most often invests alongside Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins and Jure Leskovec, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Ilan Twig
Who is Ilan Twig?
Ilan Twig is co-founder and CTO of Navan and co-founder of StreamOnce, which Jive Software acquired. He also invests as an angel.
Has Ilan Twig invested in AI startups?
Yes. He took part in Engram's $98M round in June 2026. Engram builds a memory layer for enterprise AI models.
What is Ilan Twig's angel check size?
It is not public. No source gives a check size, so founders should not assume one.
What stage does Ilan Twig invest in?
He has not stated a preferred stage. His one recent disclosed deal is Engram, which the Lounge deals desk lists as a seed round. CB Insights lists it as a Series A.
What does Ilan Twig look for in a startup?
He has not publicly described an investment thesis. As Navan CTO, he has spoken publicly about building AI systems with enterprise-grade reliability.
Which companies has Ilan Twig built?
He co-founded StreamOnce and then Navan, formerly TripActions, with Ariel Cohen. Navan went public in 2025.
Is Ilan Twig an angel investor?
Yes. Ilan Twig invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Ilan Twig invested in?
Ilan Twig's AI investments include Engram. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Ilan Twig invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Ilan Twig has invested at Seed, with a median round of $98M.
Who does Ilan Twig co-invest with?
Ilan Twig's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Sequoia Capital (1 deal), General Catalyst (1 deal), Kleiner Perkins (1 deal), Jure Leskovec (1 deal) and Tomer Schwartz (1 deal).