Blake Byers
General Partner
Get their honest, personalized take on your startup.
Sign in to pitch Blake →At a glance
- Full Name
- Blake Byers (Dr. Blake Byers, PhD)
- Title
- Founder, Byers Capital; Co-Founder & Board Member, NewLimit (former General Partner, GV / Google Ventures)
- Firm
- Byers Capital (single family office)
- Firm Type
- Family office / angel & venture investor (formerly institutional VC at GV)
- Investment Stage
- Seed through Growth — historically concentrated in Series A/B, with opportunistic later-stage/growth deals
- Check Size
- Not publicly disclosed (family-office capital; varies by deal)
- Target Company Profile
- Frontier technology and biotechnology companies applying deep science/engineering to large markets; strong technical founding teams
- Sector Focus
- AI (foundation models, coding agents, mathematical reasoning), brain-computer interfaces, longevity/aging biology, AI-driven drug discovery, space, robotics
- Geographic Focus
- Primarily United States (San Francisco Bay Area–centric)
- Location
- Woodside / San Francisco Bay Area, California
Background
Blake Byers holds a PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford University, where he led research projects in biomedical engineering and stem cell biology before entering venture capital. He comes from a prominent venture family — he is the son of Brook Byers, the longtime Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) partner and life-sciences investing pioneer.
Byers joined GV (Google Ventures) in 2010 and spent roughly a decade there, ultimately as a General Partner, helping scale the firm from an early ~$50M fund into a multi-billion-dollar operation (reportedly around $2.5B in assets). At GV he built a reputation as a leading life-sciences and deep-tech investor, backing companies across biotech and technology. His GV track record includes 10 IPOs (among them Robinhood, IonQ, and SoFi) and acquisitions such as Grail (~$7B) and Forty Seven (~$4.9B).
Byers stepped down from GV in April 2021 (after roughly a nine-year run) to build independently. He launched Byers Capital, a single family office making direct investments in technology and biotechnology companies and acting as a limited partner in a small number of venture funds. He describes himself as "an avowed generalist," investing across superintelligence, mathematical reasoning, coding agents, AI drug development, brain-computer interfaces, and human longevity.
Around the same time, he co-founded NewLimit — a longevity/epigenetic-reprogramming biotech aimed at extending healthy human lifespan — alongside Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and scientist Jacob Kimmel, where he serves as a co-founder and board member. (Some third-party databases also list past or affiliate roles such as DCVC Bio and Susa Ventures; his primary current vehicles are Byers Capital and NewLimit.)
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Self-described "avowed generalist" — invests across frontier tech and biotech rather than a single vertical; thesis is backing hard, science-driven bets with outsized potential.
- Core themes: superintelligence/AI (coding agents, mathematical reasoning), AI-enabled drug development, brain-computer interfaces, and human longevity.
- Stage: historically focused on Series A and B, with opportunistic seed and growth-equity participation; via Byers Capital he can move flexibly from seed to growth.
- Looks for exceptional technical founders tackling foundational problems (bioengineering, deep tech, foundation-model AI) with large commercial end-markets.
- Blends institutional-VC discipline (from a decade at GV) with founder-operator credibility (co-founding NewLimit).
Notable Investments
- Neuralink — brain-computer interface company (Elon Musk); long-held position.
- NewLimit — longevity/epigenetic-reprogramming biotech he co-founded with Brian Armstrong and Jacob Kimmel.
- Grail — cancer early-detection diagnostics; acquired (~$7B).
- Denali Therapeutics — neurodegenerative-disease drug developer (GV-era).
- Robinhood — commission-free trading app; early backer, later IPO.
- IonQ — quantum computing; IPO.
- SoFi — consumer fintech; IPO.
- Forty Seven — immuno-oncology biotech; acquired (~$4.9B).
- OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Harmonic — frontier AI / foundation-model and reasoning companies.
- SpaceX — space launch and satellite company.
- Chai Discovery, Xaira — AI-for-drug-discovery / biotech.
- Factory, The Bot Company — AI coding agents / robotics.
- Vial, Benchling, Gusto, Blockchain.com, Dapper — additional tech/biotech holdings across his GV and Byers Capital activity.
Unlock the full research
Get how to approach them, recent activity, sources, contact links — plus pitch their AI twin for a candid read on your raise.
One-time. Stays unlocked for you.