Nat Friedman
About Nat Friedman
Nat Friedman grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, and studied at MIT. He has been involved in open source since early in his career. He worked on Ximian, an open source company that Novell acquired in 2003. In 2011 he co-founded Xamarin, which built cross-platform mobile development tools on .NET.
Microsoft acquired Xamarin in 2016, and Friedman became a corporate vice president for developer services. When Microsoft completed its $7.5 billion acquisition of GitHub in 2018, he was named GitHub's CEO. He took the role on October 29, 2018. He stepped down in November 2021 and said he planned to return to his startup roots to invest in builders.
He is also a board member at the Arc Institute and cofounded California YIMBY. In June 2025 he joined Meta to co-lead Meta Superintelligence Labs with Alexandr Wang. Meta also reportedly sought to buy out a share of NFDG's holdings, though it was not reported to get access to portfolio company information. Wikipedia describes his current role there as head of product.
After leaving GitHub, Friedman invested full time. His personal site says he has invested in more than 100 startups. Crunchbase lists 75 investments for him, so counts differ by source and depend on how each tracker records angel rounds.
His own list of investments includes ElevenLabs, Keen Technologies, Character.ai, Terraform Industries, Retool, ggml.ai, Scale, Vercel, Weights & Biases, Perplexity, AssemblyAI, Magic.dev, Apollo, Sentry, Klarity, Pilot and Streamlit. Dealroom counts 87 companies in his portfolio, concentrated in the US, with smaller numbers in the UK, India and France. Crunchbase shows no recorded lead investments, exits or founded companies under his personal profile. His site says he leads seed and Series A rounds, so those counts probably understate how he invests.
In March 2023, during the run on Silicon Valley Bank, Wikipedia reports he provided capital to several startups.
Crunchbase shows 59 AI investments since 2023. Its AI portfolio list includes Capsule, Distyl AI, Portola, Suno, Reka AI, 8Flow, Magic, Pincites, Coframe, Consensus, Recraft and Matic Robots.
Friedman often invests with Daniel Gross. Their partnership, NFDG, was reported to have raised about $1 billion for AI startups. Press reports name Safe Superintelligence, Perplexity, Character.ai and The Bot Company among its holdings. On the Lounge deals desk, Safe Superintelligence appears with a $1 billion Series A in September 2024.
Friedman and Gross also ran AI Grant, which they started in 2021 and which NFDG describes as an accelerator for seed-stage AI companies. Press coverage describes it as giving $250,000 in funding plus $250,000 in Microsoft Azure credits. NFDG also operates the Andromeda Cluster, a supercomputer for AI startups that was built during the GPU shortage.
He is also listed as an advisor to Midjourney.
Friedman's personal site lists his current interests as AI, infrastructure, open source and some frontier tech. He says he leads seed and Series A rounds and some growth rounds. The stated range is $1 million to $100 million per investment. NFDG's site gives the same range and says it leads rounds from seed to growth.
His portfolio is mostly in the United States, with some companies in the UK, India, France and elsewhere, according to Dealroom. His site invites founders to contact him directly by email at nat@nat.org. Since he joined Meta in 2025, how actively he is making new investments is not publicly clear, so founders should check current status before pitching.
- Safe Superintelligence: AI lab co-founded by Ilya Sutskever, Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy. It raised a $1B Series A in September 2024 and NFDG holds a stake.
- Perplexity: AI answer engine. Friedman invested personally, and NFDG is also reported as an investor.
- Character.ai: conversational AI company listed on his personal site and as an NFDG holding.
- ElevenLabs: AI voice company listed on his personal site.
- Magic: AI company building coding models, listed on his site as Magic.dev and in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Suno: AI music generation company in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Reka AI: AI model developer in his Crunchbase AI portfolio. Dealroom estimates he holds about 5%.
- The Bot Company: robotics company named in press reports as an NFDG investment. Dealroom estimates he holds about 4.5%.
- Retool: internal tools platform listed on his site. Dealroom estimates he holds about 2.5%.
- Vercel, Scale and Weights & Biases: developer and AI infrastructure companies listed on his personal site.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Friedman
- cnbc.com/2021/11/03/microsoft-github-ceo-nat-friedman-replaced-by-thom
- nfdg.com
- medium.com/@Satishes/nat-friedman-cbb2975ed62a
- datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/meta-in-talks-to-partially-acquire-vc-f
- siliconangle.com/2025/07/03/safe-superintelligence-ceo-daniel-gross-jo
- pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2025/report-meta-aims-to-hire-ai-
- dealroom.co/investors/nat-friedman
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Nat Friedman has made 75 investments according to Crunchbase. 59 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Capsule, Distyl AI, Portola, Suno and Reka AI.
Nat Friedman appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the AI Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $1B. The rounds are mostly Series A, with a median round size of $1B. The most recent is Safe Superintelligence (Series A, $1B, Sep 2024).
Nat Friedman most often invests alongside Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, DST Global and Daniel Gross, and the companies they back on AI Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Nat Friedman
What check size does Nat Friedman write?
His personal site and NFDG's site both say they invest between $1 million and $100 million at a time. Smaller angel check sizes are not published.
What stage does Nat Friedman invest in?
He says he leads seed and Series A rounds and some growth rounds. NFDG describes its range as seed to growth.
What does Nat Friedman invest in?
His site lists AI, infrastructure, open source and some frontier tech. Crunchbase shows 59 AI investments since 2023.
Is Nat Friedman still investing after joining Meta?
He joined Meta Superintelligence Labs in 2025. Whether he is taking new pitches is not stated publicly, so check his site and recent announcements.
How can founders contact Nat Friedman?
His personal site, nat.org, lists the email nat@nat.org. He is also on LinkedIn and X.
What is AI Grant?
AI Grant is a program Friedman co-runs with Daniel Gross, started in 2021 for early-stage AI companies. Press reports describe $250,000 in funding and $250,000 in Azure credits.
Is Nat Friedman an angel investor?
Yes. Nat Friedman invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 75 investments.
What AI companies has Nat Friedman invested in?
Nat Friedman's AI investments include Capsule, Distyl AI, Portola, Suno, Reka AI, 8Flow, Magic and Pincites. The 1 round on AI Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Nat Friedman based?
Nat Friedman is based in San Francisco, United States.
What stage does Nat Friedman invest at?
In the rounds tracked on AI Lounge, Nat Friedman has invested at Series A, with a median round of $1B.