Hemant Taneja

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Hemant Taneja is the CEO and managing director of General Catalyst, a venture capital firm with investments in Stripe, Snap, and Mistral, among others.[1][2][3] Taneja has been CEO and managing director since 2021.[1]Under his leadership, General Catalyst has Assets Under Management (AUM) of over $25 billion;[4] raised almost $6 billion in 2024 to invest in technology start-ups across industries including defense, space, climate, fintech, and healthcare;[1] bought a hospital and partnered with others to trial new models of care under the Health Assurance Transformation Corporation (HATCo);[5][1][6] and expanded internationally, merging with European investor La Famiglia and Indian investor Venture Highway.[1][7]

Investments

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Taneja’s investments include Stripe, Snap, Anduril, Grammarly, Gusto, and Samsara.[4] He invested in Hippocratic AI, an LLM designed for healthcare that was launched in 2023.[8] Hippocratic CEO Munjal Shah said that he and Taneja came up with the idea for the startup together.[8]

Taneja also founded two health-focused companies: Livongo (co-founded), which was later acquired by Teladoc Health in an $18.5 billion merger,[4] and Commure (valued at $6 billion), which later merged with Athelas.[9]

Responsible Innovation

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In 2023 Taneja co-founded a nonprofit, the Responsible Innovation Labs,[10] that partnered with the U.S. Commerce Department to lead an initiative to encourage early-stage startups to develop AI responsibly: the Responsible AI Initiative.[11][2] In November 2023, Taneja shared that over 35 venture capital firms and 15 companies had signed a set of “Responsible AI” commitments authored by the Responsible Innovation Lab.[10] The nonprofit also published the Responsible AI Protocol, described as a “how-to playbook”.[10]

Books

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Taneja wrote the following books:

  • Intended Consequences: How to Build Market-Leading Companies with Responsible Innovation (2022)[12]
  • UnHealthcare (2020), ISBN 1716996511, 978-1716996511
  • Unscaled (2018)[13][14]

Philanthropy

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Taneja and his wife are members of the Giving Pledge.[15] By signing the pledge, they commit to donating the majority of their wealth in their lifetimes or after their death.[15]

In 2018, Taneja gave a gift in support of MIT.nano, the new center for nanoscience and nanotechnology at MIT.[16] His donation created the Shiv and Santosh Taneja Innovation Alcove (named for his parents).[16]

Taneja also helped build the Khan Lab School, a school that uses the MIT systems thinking approach for elementary education.[16] He serves on the Stanford School of Medicine Board of Fellows, and the Board of Trustees for Northeastern University. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Advanced Energy Economy (now Advanced Energy United).[17][12][13][18]

Early life and education

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Taneja and his family moved from India to Boston, Massachusetts when he was in high school.[16] Taneja later attended MIT, where he earned three undergraduate and two graduate degrees.[4][16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Hammond, George (28 April 2024). "Silicon Valley's General Catalyst closes in on $6bn fund for tech start-ups". Financial Times. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  2. ^ a b "A Venture Capitalist's View of AI: Where the Money Is". The Wall Street Journal. 19 February 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  3. ^ Torrence, Rebecca. "A top investor in global brands from Airbnb to Snap says we need swift 'guardrails' to get countries on the same page about AI". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
  4. ^ a b c d "Hemant Taneja". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  5. ^ Adams, Katie (2024-01-18). "Is General Catalyst Buying Summa Health a Good Idea? Only Time Will Tell". MedCity News. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  6. ^ "General Catalyst announces new healthcare company, intent to purchase health system". MobiHealthNews. 2023-10-10. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  7. ^ Singh, Manish (2024-06-20). "General Catalyst merges with Venture Highway in India push". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  8. ^ a b Adams, Katie (2023-05-16). "Meet the Startup Promising to Deliver the 1st Healthcare-focused Generative AI Model". MedCity News. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
  9. ^ "Sixteen Indian Americans among Business Insider's 'The Seed 100'". The Indian Panorama. 21 June 2024. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  10. ^ a b c Harris, Ainsley (19 November 2023). "The AI safety debate is tearing Silicon Valley apart". Fast Company. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  11. ^ Confino, Paolo. "Commerce Department partners with major VC firms encourage startups to be "responsible" in AI use". Fortune. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  12. ^ a b "View From The Top: Hemant Taneja". Stanford Graduate School of Business. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  13. ^ a b "Hemant Taneja". Hachette Book Group. 2017-08-08. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  14. ^ Unscaled. 2017-08-08. ISBN 978-1-61039-812-1.
  15. ^ a b Olakoyenikan, Segun. "Open AI's Sam Altman Just Vowed To Donate Most Of His Wealth Through Giving Pledge". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  16. ^ a b c d e "Education Meets Innovation". MIT for a Better World. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  17. ^ Kaufmann, K. (2023-01-06). "New Mission Means New Name for Advanced Energy Economy". RTO Insider. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  18. ^ Mello-Klein, Cody (0909). "Hemant Taneja, a venture capitalist and global thought leader, appointed to Northeastern University Board of Trustees". Northeastern Global News. Retrieved 2024-09-19.