John Donovan
About John Donovan
John Donovan is described in press coverage as the former CEO of AT&T. His LinkedIn profile says he has spent more than 30 years applying technology to business, and it lists Qudit Investments as his current role. He is based in Dallas, Texas, and studied at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business.
PitchBook's profile credits him with overseeing AT&T's global 5G leadership and its shift to software-defined networking. His LinkedIn lists honors from 2013, including Tech Innovator of the Year from The American Business Awards.
PitchBook classifies Donovan as an individual angel investor with 10 recorded investments. Its dated entries start in 2021 and include Lucata (April 2021), Humantic AI (April 2022), Sunday Security (May 2022), Perygee (October 2022), ArmorCode (November 2022), Omneky (July 2023) and Enam Co. (February 2025). Crunchbase lists a seed investment in Milestone as his latest. PitchBook and Crunchbase list the same person under several similar entries, so counts differ between sources.
Recent public announcements name Donovan as an angel in AI rounds. Outtake, an AI security startup, listed him among the angels in its $40M raise in January 2026. Milestone, an Israeli startup that measures how AI coding tools affect code quality and speed, named him in its $10M seed round. In March 2026 he is listed on the Lounge deals desk for The Biological Computing Seed ($25M). That startup combines living neurons with AI models. Donovan's LinkedIn feed includes a post about the company and another about Omneky's image and video model benchmark.
His public record shows investments in AI applications, AI security, software development tools and enterprise software, plus one computing hardware company (Lucata) and one AI infrastructure company (The Biological Computing Co.). Most disclosed rounds are seed or early stage. Tracxn lists his investments as mostly in the United States, with some in Israel. Donovan has not publicly stated a check size or a formal investment thesis.
- The Biological Computing Co.: San Francisco startup building computing that combines living neurons with AI models; $25M seed round (2026)
- Outtake: AI security startup; Donovan was an angel in its $40M round (January 2026)
- Milestone: platform measuring the adoption and impact of AI coding tools; angel in its $10M seed round
- Omneky: AI creative and advertising company; PitchBook dates his investment to July 2023
- Humantic AI: PitchBook dates his investment to April 2022; Crunchbase lists it as an angel round
- Perygee: PitchBook lists software development applications, October 2022
- ArmorCode: PitchBook lists software development applications, November 2022
- Sunday Security: PitchBook lists IT consulting and outsourcing, May 2022
- Lucata: computing and data hardware company; PitchBook dates his investment to April 2021
- linkedin.com/in/johndonovanatt
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/150531-58
- crunchbase.com/person/john-donovan-3
- techcrunch.com/2026/01/28/ai-security-startup-outtake-raises-40m-from-
- calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sk9k1umebe
- tracxn.com/d/people/john-donovan/__wkQqeLCRcIXRvjIKyHVQoLklhYoUjmSpr3o
- siliconangle.com/2026/02/12/ai-startup-biological-computing-co-raises-
Investing activity
John Donovan appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $25M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $25M. The most recent is The Biological Computing (Seed, $25M, Mar 2026).
John Donovan most often invests alongside Primary Venture Partners, Builders VC, Thomas Dohmke and Proximity Ventures, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about John Donovan
Who is John Donovan, the angel investor?
He is the former CEO of AT&T and now leads Qudit Investments in Dallas. He invests personally in early-stage technology companies.
What AI startups has John Donovan invested in?
Public announcements name Outtake, Milestone and The Biological Computing Co. PitchBook and Crunchbase also list Omneky and Humantic AI.
What stage does John Donovan invest in?
The disclosed rounds are mostly seed and early stage. They include Milestone's seed, Outtake's 2026 round and The Biological Computing Co.'s seed.
What check size does John Donovan write?
He has not publicly disclosed a check size. Databases show round sizes, not his own amounts.
Does John Donovan invest in AI infrastructure and security?
Yes. He has backed Outtake (AI security), Perygee and ArmorCode (software security and development) and The Biological Computing Co. (neuron-based AI compute).
How can founders reach John Donovan?
He posts on LinkedIn, where he has about 31K followers. No personal website or X account was found in public sources.
Is John Donovan an angel investor?
Yes. John Donovan invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has John Donovan invested in?
John Donovan's AI investments include The Biological Computing. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does John Donovan invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, John Donovan has invested at Seed, with a median round of $25M.
Who does John Donovan co-invest with?
John Donovan's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Primary Venture Partners (1 deal), Builders VC (1 deal), Thomas Dohmke (1 deal), Proximity Ventures (1 deal) and E1 Ventures (1 deal).