Menlo Ventures promotes Deedy Das to partner after just 1 year

Menlo Ventures has promoted Deedy Das to Partner, recognizing his rapid impact on the firm’s AI investment strategy since joining in 2024. The elevation reflects Menlo’s aggressive push into AI investing, where Das has co-launched a $100M fund with Anthropic and backed 35 startups while helping establish the firm as a leading early-stage AI investor.

What you should know: Das made an unusually fast ascent to partner level, achieving the promotion in just over a year at the firm.

• He co-launched the $100M Anthology Fund with Anthropic, the AI safety company behind the Claude chatbot, and has already backed 35 startups across AI/ML, next-generation infrastructure, and enterprise software.
• His investment focus emphasizes technical founders building at the frontier of AI development.
• Das brings hands-on experience from his role as a founding team member at Glean, an enterprise search company, where he helped scale the company from under 10 employees to over 700 and contributed to its $7B valuation.

Why this matters: The promotion signals Menlo Ventures’ commitment to competing aggressively in the crowded AI investment landscape, where technical expertise increasingly differentiates venture capital firms.

• Das’s background as both a technical founder and operator gives him credibility with entrepreneurs navigating complex AI development challenges.
• His promotion comes as venture firms race to establish expertise in AI investing, with technical backgrounds becoming increasingly valuable for partnership decisions.

What they’re saying: Matt Murphy, Partner at Menlo Ventures, emphasized Das’s unique combination of technical and operational experience.

• “Deedy made an outsized impact in a very short time,” Murphy said. “Founders believe in him because he’s been in their shoes building products, scaling teams, and navigating the journey to product market fit.”
• Das expressed his long-term view on AI development: “There is so much foundational AI work happening right now that won’t fully come to fruition for the next decade.”

Beyond investing: Das has built significant influence as an AI thought leader through his research and social media presence.

• He co-authored Menlo’s 2025 Mid-Year LLM Market Update, analyzing enterprise adoption trends and competitive dynamics between providers like Anthropic and OpenAI.
• His social media following includes over 200,000 followers on X and 100,000 on LinkedIn, where his commentary shapes how industry participants navigate the AI ecosystem.

The portfolio: Menlo’s AI investments span both infrastructure and application companies, reflecting the firm’s broad approach to the sector.

• Current AI-focused portfolio companies include Abnormal AI, Anthropic, Openrouter, Harness, Neon, Sana, and Typeface.
• The firm manages more than $7 billion in assets and has backed over 85 companies that went public, along with 170 exits through mergers and acquisitions.