Who is Deedy Das? Kolkata-born ‘AI Startup Whisperer’ becomes Partner at Menlo Ventures

Debarghya ‘Deedy’ Das, a Kolkata-born technologist and venture capitalist, has been promoted to Partner at Menlo Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms. His promotion comes a mere 18 months after joining the firm, underscoring his rapid rise in the world of AI and venture investing.

Dubbed as ‘AI whisperer’ by Business Insider, Deedy Das announced the news on social media with characteristic humility and humour.

“After a remarkable 18mos at Menlo Ventures, I'm excited to announce that perhaps against better judgement, they have decided to make me a Partner at the firm. Wild that just 6yrs ago, I'd be up at 2am debugging Google Search,” Deedy Das wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Who is Deedy Das?

Debarghya ‘Deedy’ Das describes himself on his personal website as:

“Investing in AI, SaaS and Infra at Menlo Ventures in San Francisco. Previous: Founding team Glean, Google Search, Facebook.”

Born and educated in Kolkata, India, Deedy Das completed his schooling at La Martiniere for Boys, according to his LinkedIn profile. He later pursued higher education in the United States, earning a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) in Computer Science from the prestigious Cornell University, an Ivy League institution.

Deedy Das' Career Path: From Big Tech to Venture Capital

Deedy Das’s professional journey features high-profile stints at global tech giants. The Kolkata native has previously worked as a software engineer at Facebook and Google, where he contributed to core projects, including Google Search.

In addition to his industry roles, Deedy Das served as a part-time lecturer at Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT Bombay), one of India’s top engineering institutes, for two years.

Deedy Das also acts as an advisor to cutting-edge AI companies such as Perplexity, Sana, and Aisera, and is an angel investor in startups like Cartesia and Fulcrum.

Deedy Das – Founding Team Member at Glean

Prior to joining Menlo Ventures, Deedy Das played a pivotal role at Glean, an enterprise search startup. As a founding team member, he built and led the development of Glean Assistant, helping the company scale from fewer than 10 employees to over 700.

During his four-year tenure, Glean grew from having no product to achieving a $2.2 billion valuation. This valuation surged to $7.2 billion by June 2025, making it one of the fastest-growing companies in the enterprise AI space.

Deedy Das – Driving Menlo Ventures’ AI Strategy

Since joining Menlo Ventures in 2024, Deedy Das has emerged as a key architect of the firm’s AI investment strategy. He co-launched the $100 million Anthology Fund, a partnership with Anthropic, and has been instrumental in backing 35 AI startups to date, according to official document.

Deddy Das' investment focus spans:

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)
• Next-generation infrastructure
• Enterprise software, with a particular emphasis on technical founders building at the frontier of innovation

In July 2025, Deedy Das co-authored Menlo Ventures’ Mid-Year LLM Market Update, a data-driven report analysing trends in large language models (LLMs), enterprise AI adoption, and the competitive dynamics between industry leaders such as Anthropic and OpenAI.

Deedy Das has also built a significant online following, with over 200,000 followers on X and 100,000 followers on LinkedIn, where his insights influence how founders, operators, and investors navigate the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.

What is Menlo Ventures?

Founded in 1976, Menlo Ventures is one of Silicon Valley’s leading early-stage venture capital firms. The firm manages over $7 billion in assets and has invested in more than 85 public companies and 170 successful exits through mergers and acquisitions.

Menlo Ventures has backed some of the most recognisable names in technology, including:

Uber, Roku, Siri, Anthropic, Chime, Poshmark, Benchling, Carta, Harness, Recursion, Neon, and Abnormal AI.

The firm has recently doubled down on AI, positioning itself at the forefront of the sector’s rapid growth. In their own words:

“When we’re in, we’re ALL IN – and we are ALL IN on AI.”