# Doug Neal

> Doug Neal is a seed investor at eLab Ventures (Ann Arbor) backing Robotics and Software. See 7 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [eLab Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/michigan-elab)
- Location: Ann Arbor, United States
- Total investments: 7
- Last investment: Mar 2021
- Lead investor: 29%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dougneal
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/DougNeal_MI
- Website: https://x.com/DougNeal_MI

Doug Neal is a seed investor at eLab Ventures in Ann Arbor focused on Robotics and Software. Doug Neal is Co-Founder and Managing Director of eLab Ventures.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Robotics | 1 | 14% |
| Software | 1 | 14% |
| Analytics | 1 | 14% |
| Logistics | 1 | 14% |
| Automotive | 1 | 14% |

10 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 1 | 14% |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 14% |
| Series A | 1 | 14% |
| Series B | 1 | 14% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 14% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Refraction AI | Refraction AI is a leading robotics delivery software and services startup. It builds and deploys robotic platforms for providing safe and scalable last-mile goods delivery in urban areas. Refraction picks up goods from places like restaurants, pharmacies, and grocery stores and brings them directly to the door, enabling faster, cheaper, and saferdelivery to meet customer’s growing expectations.Refraction’s robots are completely autonomous using a system of a dozen cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors and can also be teleoperated and monitored remotely. They employ an autonomy stack that is designed to perform in all climates, from the harshest of winters of Michigan to the hottest summers of Texas. | $4.2M | Seed | Mar 08, 2021 |  |
| Refraction AI | Refraction AI is a leading robotics delivery software and services startup. It builds and deploys robotic platforms for providing safe and scalable last-mile goods delivery in urban areas. Refraction picks up goods from places like restaurants, pharmacies, and grocery stores and brings them directly to the door, enabling faster, cheaper, and saferdelivery to meet customer’s growing expectations.Refraction’s robots are completely autonomous using a system of a dozen cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors and can also be teleoperated and monitored remotely. They employ an autonomy stack that is designed to perform in all climates, from the harshest of winters of Michigan to the hottest summers of Texas. | $5M |  | Jun 01, 2020 |  |
| Refraction AI | Refraction AI is a leading robotics delivery software and services startup. It builds and deploys robotic platforms for providing safe and scalable last-mile goods delivery in urban areas. Refraction picks up goods from places like restaurants, pharmacies, and grocery stores and brings them directly to the door, enabling faster, cheaper, and saferdelivery to meet customer’s growing expectations.Refraction’s robots are completely autonomous using a system of a dozen cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors and can also be teleoperated and monitored remotely. They employ an autonomy stack that is designed to perform in all climates, from the harshest of winters of Michigan to the hottest summers of Texas. | $5M | Seed | Jun 01, 2020 |  |
| Refraction AI | Refraction AI is a leading robotics delivery software and services startup. It builds and deploys robotic platforms for providing safe and scalable last-mile goods delivery in urban areas. Refraction picks up goods from places like restaurants, pharmacies, and grocery stores and brings them directly to the door, enabling faster, cheaper, and saferdelivery to meet customer’s growing expectations.Refraction’s robots are completely autonomous using a system of a dozen cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors and can also be teleoperated and monitored remotely. They employ an autonomy stack that is designed to perform in all climates, from the harshest of winters of Michigan to the hottest summers of Texas. | $1.5M | Pre-Seed | Apr 01, 2019 |  |
| Bindplane | Blue Medora’s pioneering IT monitoring integration as a service addresses today’s IT challenges by easily connecting system health and performance data–no matter its source–with the world’s leading monitoring and analytics platforms. Blue Medora helps customers unlock dimensional data across their IT stack, otherwise hidden by traditionalapproaches to metrics collection. |  | Series B | Oct 23, 2017 |  |
| Bindplane | Blue Medora’s pioneering IT monitoring integration as a service addresses today’s IT challenges by easily connecting system health and performance data–no matter its source–with the world’s leading monitoring and analytics platforms. Blue Medora helps customers unlock dimensional data across their IT stack, otherwise hidden by traditionalapproaches to metrics collection. |  | Series B | Aug 30, 2016 |  |
| Bindplane | Blue Medora’s pioneering IT monitoring integration as a service addresses today’s IT challenges by easily connecting system health and performance data–no matter its source–with the world’s leading monitoring and analytics platforms. Blue Medora helps customers unlock dimensional data across their IT stack, otherwise hidden by traditionalapproaches to metrics collection. | $4.6M | Series A | Jun 29, 2015 |  |

7 of 7 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Trucks Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/trucks-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Pillar VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pillar-companies-2) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Wakestream Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/wakestream-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Lewis & Clark Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lewis---clark-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [First Analysis](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/first-analysis) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About eLab Ventures

VC Fund · Ann Arbor, United States

eLab Ventures is an early stage technology venture capital fund created to capitalize on the growth of emerging entrepreneurial markets outside of Silicon Valley and to create bridges to those markets to seek startups with disruptive innovations, exceptional teams, and capital efficient business models that have the potential to serve largemarkets. eLab is strategically based both in Ann Arbor, to leverage innovation and talent in the Midwest, and in Silicon Valley, to leverage customers, business development, funding sources and a strong network of experienced advisors. We are passionate about nurturing world-changing ideas by connecting entrepreneurs to capital and expertise needed to build great, disruptive companies!

5 contacts available at eLab Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Robert Stefanski | Co-Founder and Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/robert-stefanski |
| Doug Neal | Co-Founder and Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/doug-neal |
| Mahendra Vora | Limited Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mahendra-vora |
| Paul Brown | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/paul-brown-10 |
| Rick Bolander | Co-Founder and Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rick-bolander |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Doug Neal invest in?

Doug Neal invests primarily in Robotics, Software and Analytics startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 7 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 Doug Neal last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Doug Neal closed in Mar 2021. Shizune tracks 7 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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