We’re delighted to announce that Grace Isford is joining Lux Capital as a Principal based in our New York City office, where she will be investing at the nexus of web3, data infrastructure, and AI/ML.

Since our inception two decades ago, we’ve focused our investment strategy on backing the best scientific and engineering teams tackling the toughest technical problems in the world. Even as we continue to plunge ever deeper into atoms and bits, it’s also clear that we can’t ignore the institutions that power our society, which face their own complex challenges. Our financial system is sclerotic and undemocratic, built on pulped trees rather than code and smart contracts. Our health system remains mired in antiquated systems when every patient should be receiving personalized and rigorous care backed by the best datasets in the world.

We can do so much better. It’s why the Lux team has led pioneering investments in web3 with companies like crypto exchange FTX, institutional digital asset custodian Anchorage and BTC-based smart contract network Stacks as well as in AI and data infrastructure with startups like life sciences data cloud Benchling, autonomous vehicle test platform Applied Intuition, and AI-based infertility treatment service Alife Health.

Grace will be intensifying our commitment to web3 and areas where AI infrastructure can transform institutions, bringing her own theses and wealth of knowledge to bear on these fast-moving fields.

She joins us from Canvas Ventures, where she started as a campus scout while attending Stanford University before becoming a full-time investor in 2019. While there, she sourced 10 investments, including open-source robotic process automation platform Robocorp and blockchain-powered, real-time data sharing platform Vendia, which was co-founded by AWS Lambda inventor Tim Wagner and Shruthi Rao, who led Amazon Managed Blockchain.

In addition to her work in venture capital, Grace also sat on the other side of the table as an LP, working at the Stanford Management Company.

While she has an exemplary track record and, as an avid runner and cyclist, a competitive streak to back the best founding teams in the world, it was her warm personality, helpfulness, and thoughtfulness in every interaction that most attracted us to her. As our entire team built a relationship with her, we’ve been consistently impressed with her resourcefulness and good-spiritedness to her founders, her team, and her community. It’s rare for us to find an “all of the above” investor, and we knew we wanted to bring her on board as soon as we could.

While based in our Flatiron office in New York City, Grace’s work won’t be limited to just the East Coast. Like all Lux investors, she looks globally for the best teams and products. Having spent part of her childhood growing up in Tokyo, she will double down on our commitment to back the most promising startups from anywhere — even the metaverse itself.

We’re delighted to have Grace join us, and hope you can meet her in person or virtually soon.

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