# Dan Engel

> Dan Engel is a Series A investor at Santa Barbara Venture Partners backing Software. See 17 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Santa Barbara Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/santa-barbara-venture-partners)
- Location: Santa Barbara, United States
- Total investments: 17
- Last investment: Dec 2025
- Lead investor: 6%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danengel1/
- Website: http://www.santabarbaravp.com

Dan Engel is a Series A investor at Santa Barbara Venture Partners in Santa Barbara focused on Software and Artificial Intelligence. https://santabarbaravp.com/index.php/dan-engel-bio/Dan has been a B2B and B2C software entrepreneur since 1997, and has been a public securities retail investor since 1991. Prior to launching SBVP, in addition to being an active angel investor over the last nine years, Dan was a Venture Capitalist-in-Residence and VenturePartner at OCV Partners and NGEN Partners. Prior to becoming a VC, Dan led customer acquisition for Google, GoToMeeting, Picasa, and FastSpring.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 5 | 29% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 5 | 29% |
| Analytics | 3 | 18% |
| Machine Learning | 3 | 18% |
| SaaS | 2 | 12% |

45 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 6 | 35% |
| Seed | 2 | 12% |
| Series B | 2 | 12% |
| Series D | 2 | 12% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 6% |

6 stages tracked in total.

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Automotus | The Automotus team is on a mission to transform urban mobility by helping cities, airports, fleets, and small businesses manage the unprecedented rise in congestion and emissions from commercial vehicle traffic. We’ve developed first-of-its-kind computer vision technology that helps our customers make smarter policy decisions using comprehensive,real-time curb activity data; fully automate payment for commercial vehicle (un)loading and parking; automate enforcement of curbside violations; make accessible real-time curb availability data for drivers; and incentivize adoption of electric vehicles. From cities to residents and small businesses, our solutions are meant to benefit everyone by making our communities safer, healthier, and more efficient places to live and move. Our technology supports cities across the US and in Europe, including the nation’s first zero-emissions delivery zones in Santa Monica and Los Angeles. | $7.5M | Venture - Series Unknown | Dec 12, 2025 |  |
| Curri | Curri is a construction materials provider that develops a last-mile delivery app that connects supply stores to customers.The Y Combinator-backed logistics startup company delivers construction supplies and materials with an “Uber-like” last-mile delivery model. App users arrange an order, open the Curri app, and enter pickup and dropofflocations to book the service. Curri’s drivers then pick up the supplies and ensure the order is correct before fulfilling the delivery. It offers live updates via the app to let customers follow and share the status of their deliveries. It also provides proof-of-delivery signatures and photos for tracking, regulatory, and compliance purposes.The Los Angeles, California-based company was founded in 2018 by Matt Lafferty and Brian Gonzalez. | $42M | Series B | Jun 06, 2023 |  |
| Hydrosat | Hydrosat is a deep-tech company using thermal satellite data and AI to address society's most urgent challenges. We provide geospatial intelligence for food production, security, and natural resource management. | $15M | Series A | Mar 05, 2023 |  |
| Spin.AI | Spin Technology is a SaaS data protection company based in Palo Alto, California. We protect SaaS data against ransomware, human error and insider threats. Our solutions extend security for Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 environments and protect organizations against Data Leak & Data Loss in the cloud by monitoring, securing, andbacking up sensitive SaaS data. Our Artificial Intelligence provides 24x7 monitoring and detection against harmful threats, identifies business risks, while our automated run books and deploys powerful countermeasures to ensure continuous operation, improve compliance, and reduce IT costs.Our platform "SpinOne" provides end-to-end fully automated protection against ransomware, insider threats and human error. It's designed to provide an unique security expertise and help to save a tremendous amount of time for security teams and administrators.SpinOne helps organizations gain full visibility over data security by providing an extra protection layer of new generation AI-based security and backup beyond the capabilities of what a typical cloud service provider can offer.Find out more at spin.ai | $16M | Series A | Aug 09, 2022 |  |
| Hydrosat | Hydrosat is a deep-tech company using thermal satellite data and AI to address society's most urgent challenges. We provide geospatial intelligence for food production, security, and natural resource management. | $5M | Seed | Nov 16, 2021 |  |
| Rad AI | Rad AI develops an artificial intelligence automated report generation platform to automate repetitive tasks for radiologists. Its platform integrates with existing workflow, automating repetitive tasks, and enabling radiologists to improve radiology workflow that maximizes efficiency and accuracy while reducing burnout for radiologists andimproving patient care. | $25M | Series A | Nov 10, 2021 |  |
| Jackpocket | Jackpocket is creating a more convenient, fun, and responsible way to play the lottery. The first licensed third-party lottery app in the United States, Jackpocket offers players an easy, secure way to order official state lottery tickets, such as Powerball, Mega Millions, from their phone. Lottery players use Jackpocket to place ticket orders fortheir favorite games, check lottery results, join lottery pools with other Jackpocket players, and turn on Autoplay so they never miss a drawing. Jackpocket is available in Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Washington, D.C. with many new markets on the horizon. | $120M | Series D | Nov 09, 2021 |  |
| Hydrosat | Hydrosat is a deep-tech company using thermal satellite data and AI to address society's most urgent challenges. We provide geospatial intelligence for food production, security, and natural resource management. | $5M | Seed | Jun 17, 2021 |  |
| Classy | Classy is a social enterprise that helps nonprofits maximize their impact through a suite of world-class online fundraising tools. The company also hosts the Collaborative and Classy Awards to recognize excellence in social innovation.Since 2011, they've powered tens of millions of donations from over 190 countries and raised over $2 billionfor social good. | $118M | Series D | Apr 20, 2021 |  |
| Classy | Classy is a social enterprise that helps nonprofits maximize their impact through a suite of world-class online fundraising tools. The company also hosts the Collaborative and Classy Awards to recognize excellence in social innovation.Since 2011, they've powered tens of millions of donations from over 190 countries and raised over $2 billionfor social good. | $118M | Series D | Apr 20, 2021 |  |

10 of 17 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Cultivation Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/cultivation-capital) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [Techstars](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/techstars) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Expon Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/expon-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Freeflow Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/freeflow-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Blu Venture Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/blu-venture-investors) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Techstars Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bullet-time-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Santa Barbara Venture Partners

VC Fund · Santa Barbara, United States

Venture capital firm that invests in tech and tech-enabled companies. The firm has unique expertise in building leading software companies, generating substantial revenue through on and offline customer acquisition, and in marketing in general. AUM ~$65M in 2025

4 contacts available at Santa Barbara Venture Partners.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Dan Engel | Managing Partner and Founder | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dan-engel |
| Dan Hedden | Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dan-hedden |
| Harold Hughes | Venture Scout | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/harold-hughes-2 |
| Ishan Amin | Limited Partner - Investor | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ishan-amin |

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## FAQ

### What does Dan Engel invest in?

Dan Engel invests primarily in Software, Artificial Intelligence and Analytics startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 17 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Dan Engel last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Dan Engel closed in Dec 2025. Shizune tracks 17 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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