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AI Grant Fund
AI Grant, run by Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman, deploys non-dilutive grants and early stage equity to AI-native founders via a viral online selection...
AI Grant Fund
AI Grant was launched in 2017 by Daniel Gross, a former Y Combinator partner and founder of the AI startup Cue, which was acquired by Apple. Gross later brought on Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub, as a co-investor and operating partner. The vehicle originated from a simple thesis: distributing small grants via a highly visible online application process would surface the most interesting AI-native builders who traditional venture was missing. The wealth backing the firm derives from the operators' own liquidity events in technology. The strategy centers on discovery and acceleration, deploying grant-sized checks to individuals and teams working at the frontier of artificial intelligence. Instead of a standard venture fund structure, AI Grant operates as a grant program that can also make equity investments, blending non-dilutive capital with early-stage equity under a single distribution engine. The geographic focus is global, with an overwhelming concentration in the San Francisco Bay Area. Confirmed recipients and portfolio companies include prolific AI researchers and founders working on foundation models, developer tools, and autonomous agents, though specific allocations are aggregated under the public AI Grant banner and dispersed via successive cohorts. Gross and Friedman keep the operation deliberately lean, leveraging a community-sourced selection process and their own technical judgment rather than a large internal team. The program does not operate from a traditional office; it runs out of Menlo Park and exists primarily through its digital application portal. The approach is adjacent to other experiments in tech-enabled venture — most notably the duo's involvement with the Andromeda cluster and other compute-for-equity structures. In 2023, the program ran multiple open calls, reinforcing its model of turning crowdsourced applications into a screened funnel for the best AI talent on the internet. What distinguishes AI Grant structurally is its combination of a public online selection process with the speed of a check-writing program that does not follow standard institutional limited-partner timelines. It acts as a pre-seed and seed discovery layer for AI, where the public application itself becomes both a sourcing mechanism and a marketing flywheel. There is no formal fundraising cycle, no multi-stage due diligence committee, and a governance structure that ties directly to the two named operators.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2017
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Menlo Park
Corporate office
Menlo Park, CA, United States
Principals
Daniel Gross
Founder
Nat Friedman
Co-investor and Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at AI Grant?
Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman personally select recipients. Gross is a former Y Combinator partner and Apple AI executive; Friedman is the former CEO of GitHub. The program does not employ a large investment committee or external advisors, relying instead on their direct technical evaluation and community signals.
How does AI Grant source its deal flow?
The firm sources entirely through a public, open-call application process on its website aigrant.org. The application goes viral within AI research and engineering communities on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Hacker News. This structure inverts traditional venture sourcing: the founders come to the program rather than the program cold-reaching to founders.
Is AI Grant a traditional venture capital fund?
No. AI Grant is a hybrid grant-and-investment vehicle that distributes non-dilutive cash grants and can also make equity investments. It does not have a closed fund structure, does not raise institutional capital from limited partners, and does not charge management fees in the traditional sense — the capital is largely the operators' own.
What investment stages does AI Grant typically target?
The program targets pre-seed and seed-stage AI projects, often backing individuals or very small teams before any institutional fundraising. Checks are typically grant-sized, ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 in cash with additional compute credits, though some follow-on equity investment can occur for the most promising participants.
Which sectors does AI Grant explicitly avoid?
AI Grant is aggressively focused on software-centric artificial intelligence and machine learning. It does not invest in life sciences, medical devices, hardware, or clean energy. The filter is applied at the open-call application stage, keeping the pipeline narrowly concentrated on AI-native software, research, and developer tools.
Where does the funding for AI Grant come from?
The funding comes directly from Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman, who built their wealth through technology entrepreneurship. Gross sold his company Cue to Apple and was a partner at Y Combinator. Friedman was the CEO of GitHub through its acquisition by Microsoft. The vehicle is not backed by outside institutional limited partners.
What is AI Grant's known posture on co-investments alongside external VCs?
AI Grant actively encourages portfolio companies to raise from top-tier venture firms after receiving a grant. The program serves as a discovery and pre-validation layer for the venture ecosystem and has no exclusivity requirements. Gross and Friedman have in some cases participated in later equity rounds, but only on an opportunistic basis.
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