Scott Banister
About Scott Banister
Scott Banister was born in 1975 in Kansas City, Missouri. He dropped out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996 and moved to Silicon Valley. He lives in Half Moon Bay, California.
He started in email as founder and VP of Technology at ListBot, a business email list hosting service later acquired by Microsoft. He was VP of Ideas at idealab!, where he worked on the bid-for-placement search model used by Overture. He was an early advisor and board member at PayPal.
From 2000 to 2007 he was co-founder and CTO of IronPort, an enterprise email routing and anti-spam company that Cisco acquired for $830 million. He also co-founded the social network Zivity with his wife, Cyan Banister, and has sat on the boards of Slide, Powerset, Topsy and Postmates. His LinkedIn lists Memyard as his current company.
Wikipedia and several investor databases describe him as a prolific angel, with investments in more than 100 companies. A 2019 VentureBeat piece named him, alongside Peter Thiel, as one of the most prolific investors among PayPal alumni. Wikipedia lists his angel investments as including Uber, Zappos, LiveOps, Hi5, Tagged, iLike, Causes, Topsy Labs and TekTrak.
In 2016, TechCrunch gave Scott and Cyan Banister its Angel of the Year award. Wired quoted the citation as crediting bets on SpaceX, Uber and DeepMind. PitchBook counts 203 investments and 129 exits for him. Recent public rounds include Forge Global (May 2021) and Plex (April 2021). PitchBook records his latest investment as Artemis on 4 March 2026.
PitchBook lists Lotus AI and Barndoor AI among his investments. Dealroom shows Together AI, Arcee and Nervana Systems in his portfolio. Together AI is his largest current holding by company valuation on Dealroom. He is also listed on Tracxn as a board member of Osaro, a robotics company. Investment dates for most of these are not public.
Incubator List describes him as a seed-stage investor who can lead rounds. Tracxn shows a portfolio across enterprise applications, consumer and about 20 other sectors, mainly in the United States, plus China and one other country. His holdings span fintech, logistics, robotics, healthcare and developer and enterprise software as well as AI. He has not published a check size or a formal thesis, so founders should not assume either.
- Uber: ride-hailing and delivery platform; early angel investor, year not stated in sources.
- SpaceX: launch and spacecraft company; a backer cited in the Angel of the Year award.
- DeepMind: AI research lab; cited in the 2016 Angel of the Year award.
- Together AI: AI infrastructure and model platform; listed as a current holding.
- Arcee: enterprise AI software company; listed in his portfolio.
- Barndoor AI: AI company listed on PitchBook.
- Carta: equity management software; listed as a notable investment on Tracxn.
- Zappos: online retailer; early investor.
- Postmates: delivery marketplace; he served on its board.
- Forge Global and Plex: participated in 2021 rounds.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Banister
- crunchbase.com/person/scott-banister
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/105884-65
- incubatorlist.com/scott-banister
- compasslist.com/investors/scott-banister
- dealroom.co/investors/scott-banister
- tracxn.com/d/people/scott-banister/__vZNUbNn95GOAj3Vx2vunfk-xMme0N1XB7
- linkedin.com/in/banister
Investing activity
Scott Banister is listed on Lounge as an angel investor. The deals desk records Series A and later AI rounds and seeds over $10M, so smaller checks may not show here yet.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Scott Banister
Who is Scott Banister?
He is an American entrepreneur and angel investor. He co-founded IronPort, which Cisco bought for $830 million in 2007, and was an early advisor and board member at PayPal.
What stage does Scott Banister invest in?
Incubator List lists seed and says he can lead rounds. He has not published a formal stage policy.
What is Scott Banister's check size?
It is not public. Third-party sites quote figures, but they are not confirmed by him or by press.
Has Scott Banister invested in AI companies?
Yes. Public databases list Together AI, Arcee, Barndoor AI, Lotus AI and Nervana Systems. Press has also tied him to DeepMind.
How can founders contact Scott Banister?
He lists a personal site at banister.net, a LinkedIn profile at linkedin.com/in/banister and an X account at @nist. No pitch process is published.
Is Scott Banister an angel investor?
Yes. Scott Banister invests personally as an angel.
How can founders reach Scott Banister?
Founders on Lounge can see Scott Banister'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 Scott Banister to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.