Ion Stoica
About Ion Stoica
Ion Stoica is a Romanian-American computer scientist and a professor of computer science at UC Berkeley, where he has taught since 2000. He holds a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He directs the Sky Computing Lab and previously directed RISELab and co-directed AMPLab.
He co-founded Conviva in 2006, Databricks in 2013 and Anyscale in 2019. He was Databricks CEO from 2013 until early 2016 and has been its executive chairman since. Anyscale is built around the Ray framework from his lab. His X bio also lists LMArena (now called Arena) among his co-founded companies.
His lab's recent projects include vLLM, Vicuna, MemGPT and the Arena model-evaluation platform.
Stoica invests as an individual. Crunchbase lists four personal investments: Metronome (Series A, 2022), Not Diamond (Seed, 2024), NeoCognition (Seed, 2026) and Grubel (Pre-seed, 2026). Dealroom also lists Feldera (2023). CB Insights records Metronome as acquired in December 2025.
Crunchbase also lists advisory and board roles at Matroid, BlueData Software, Conviva and Anyscale. 36Kr reports he advises the agent-memory startup Letta.
NeoCognition emerged from stealth in April 2026 with a $40M seed round co-led by Cambium Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures. Vista Equity Partners also took part. The press release names Stoica as both an angel investor and a founding advisor. NeoCognition is a research lab building self-learning AI agents.
Not Diamond raised a $2.3M seed in July 2024, according to Tracxn and CB Insights, and Stoica was one of the investors. Grubel raised a pre-seed round, which the Lounge deals desk records at EUR 3M in September 2026.
His recorded angel deals run from pre-seed to Series A, and the AI ones are early-stage. They sit in AI agents, AI infrastructure and enterprise software, which matches his research on distributed systems and AI reliability. Public records show mostly US companies. Stoica has not published a check size or a formal investment thesis, so none is given here.
- NeoCognition: research lab building self-learning AI agents; $40M seed in April 2026, where he is an angel and founding advisor.
- Not Diamond: AI startup that raised a $2.3M seed in July 2024.
- Grubel: pre-seed round recorded in September 2026.
- Metronome: Series A in February 2022; CB Insights lists it as acquired in December 2025.
- Feldera: one funding round recorded by Dealroom in 2023.
- crunchbase.com/person/ion-stoica
- prnewswire.com/news-releases/neocognition-emerges-from-stealth-with-40
- anyscale.com/press/anyscale-co-founder-and-president-ion-stoica-to-spe
- tracxn.com/d/people/ion-stoica/__4owiyiUWGpHW_CkHWwNCY-EUe-mVKw_YC06vc
- cbinsights.com/investor/ion-stoica
- dealroom.co/people/ion-stoica
- eu.36kr.com/en/p/3449060403943045
- arenamag.com/articles/the-prince-of-data
Investing activity
Ion Stoica appears in 2 AI deals tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $40M. The rounds are mostly Pre-seed and Seed, with a median round size of $40M. The most recent are Grubel (Pre-seed, €3M, Sep 2026) and NeoCognition (Seed, $40M, Apr 2026).
Ion Stoica most often invests alongside Point Nine, Winston Weinberg, Gabe Pereyra and Chris Re, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Ion Stoica
Does Ion Stoica invest in AI startups?
Yes. He is an angel investor and founding advisor in NeoCognition's $40M seed (April 2026) and an investor in Not Diamond's 2024 seed. The Lounge deals desk also records a Grubel pre-seed.
What stage does Ion Stoica invest in?
His recorded personal investments are pre-seed, seed and Series A. His two latest AI deals were a seed and a pre-seed.
What is Ion Stoica's check size?
He has not published one, and we have found no reliable public figure.
What companies has Ion Stoica founded?
He co-founded Conviva (2006), Databricks (2013) and Anyscale (2019). He is also listed as a co-founder of LMArena, now called Arena.
How can founders reach Ion Stoica?
He is on LinkedIn and X (@istoica05), and his Berkeley faculty page is public. He has not said publicly how he prefers to receive pitches.
Is Ion Stoica an angel investor?
Yes. Ion Stoica invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Ion Stoica invested in?
Ion Stoica's AI investments include Grubel and NeoCognition. The 2 rounds on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Ion Stoica invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Ion Stoica has invested at Pre-seed and Seed, with a median round of $40M.
Who does Ion Stoica co-invest with?
Ion Stoica's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Point Nine (1 deal), Winston Weinberg (1 deal), Gabe Pereyra (1 deal), Chris Re (1 deal) and Walden Catalyst Ventures (1 deal).