Sam Awrabi
Founder & Managing Partner @ Banyan Ventures
Sam Awrabi is a seed investor at Banyan Ventures focused on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Since 2018, Sam has advised or been the first sales hire at over 15 AI infrastructure companies, including being the first sales hire in the experiment and model management category, which is now worth over two billion in enterprise valuation. During this time he built thousands of connections with AI founders and builders.Sam joinedMissingLink.ai after its acquisition by Samsung in the newly formed Experiment Tracking Market. When Sam joined MissingLink, the entire market had low double-digit paying customers; today, there are over 4,000.Following his success at MissingLink, Sam took on the role of the first revenue hire at Comet ML. There, he played a key role in scaling the company from seed to Series B, helping close deals with over 150 customers, including tech giants like Uber, Cisco, Etsy, and Netflix.Sam gained invaluable insights into how enterprises buy or build AI infrastructure, witnessing firsthand how a new category of AI infrastructure is created and then transitions from early adopters to late adopters.After his tenure at Comet.ml, Sam founded Awrabi Consulting. Through his consulting, he advised leading AI startups such as Deci.ai, ClearML, Layer.ai, Datature, Deepnote, Activeloop.ai, Segmind, Nomic AI, and Ori.co, among others.His impact was significant: 54% of his advising clients went on to raise Series A funding, and 18% advanced to raise Series B. During this period, Sam also invested or advised four new AI Infrastructure markets, most notably was Deci.ai in the newly formed model optimization space which was acquired by NVIDIA, marking a significant milestone.Fueled by these achievements and insights, Sam founded Banyan Ventures to further amplify his impact by backing the most crucial AI infrastructure companies.His early investments through Banyan have shown promising trajectories, with the first three out of four investments on track to become valued at over $1 billion each.
- Total investments:
- 5
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 0%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Sam Awrabi invests in
Stages Sam Awrabi invests in
Countries Sam Awrabi invests in
Contacts
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Investment Focus
Industry
- Machine Learning 3 (60%)
- Artificial Intelligence 3 (60%)
- Software 2 (40%)
- GPU 1 (20%)
- SaaS 1 (20%)
Stage
- Seed 1 (20%)
- Pre-Seed 1 (20%)
- Series C 1 (20%)
- Convertible Note 1 (20%)
Country
- United States 3 (60%)
- United Kingdom 1 (20%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fast, on-device AI. Carve your own path with a secure, on-premise, open-source GPT. Semantic search and chat with ultimate privacy and security. | $1M / Pre-Seed / Aug 07, 2024 | ||
| Developer of high-performance, low-power artificial intelligence inference systems for data centers, including hyperscalers and neocloud providers. The technology is based on custom silicon, hardware, interconnect, and software integrated into a single AI system capable of running large multimodal models for thousands of users with reduced rackcount, power consumption, and cost. The company focuses on advancing AI R&D into production-grade systems, emphasizing efficiency, safety, and reliability. Operations are headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and Munich, Germany, with a distributed team across North America and Europe. | $102M / Series C / Feb 20, 2024 | ||
| Ori is building the AI backbone for the future, enabling teams to advance groundbreaking technology. We believe the true potential of AI will be unlocked by how seamlessly teams can access and deploy the infrastructure they need to train, serve, and scale models. As a trusted partner, Ori provides end-to-end AI infrastructure—combining powerfulGPU compute with a flexible software layer that optimizes resources. With Ori, teams can explore, build, and scale AI innovations effortlessly, transforming how software and hardware work together to drive the next wave of AI breakthroughs. | $33M / Convertible Note / Feb 04, 2024 | ||
| Workforces are no longer defined by human talent alone.They are complex ecosystems where independently operating AI agents and human professionals converge, each with the autonomy to drive critical operations while collaborating at unprecedented speed and scale.At Wand, we’re creating the operating system for hybrid workforces based on 3pillars:Automation: Agents sense operational needs, create systems that drive processes independently, and autonomously stand up entire divisions overnight, executing complex workflows with precision.Collaboration: A shared workspace where AI agents and humans converge, building collective intelligence and accelerating projects without clunky handoffs or tool switching.AI That Builds Itself: Agents triage gaps, create new specialized agents on demand, and continuously evolve without human intervention. Agents refine their own intelligence, validate their outputs, and scale autonomously, delivering solutions that get smarter, faster, and more precise over time.Built for enterprise scale, with on-premise or cloud deployment, SOC2 compliance, built-in governance, and seamless integration into your existing systems. Deploy enterprise-grade AI that delivers immediate ROI.Stop building agents. Start building hybrid teams.About the Company:Wand was founded in 2022 by Rotem Alaluf, and is headquartered in Silicon Valley. Backed by world-renowned entrepreneurs and leading U.S.-based venture capital firms, Wand boasts some of the brightest minds in AI, including talent from DeepMind, Google Brain, Microsoft Research, and other industry leaders. Our leadership team consists of seasoned executives experienced in building & bringing enterprise AI products to market. | $10M / Seed / Jul 01, 2022 | ||
| Ori is building the AI backbone for the future, enabling teams to advance groundbreaking technology. We believe the true potential of AI will be unlocked by how seamlessly teams can access and deploy the infrastructure they need to train, serve, and scale models. As a trusted partner, Ori provides end-to-end AI infrastructure—combining powerfulGPU compute with a flexible software layer that optimizes resources. With Ori, teams can explore, build, and scale AI innovations effortlessly, transforming how software and hardware work together to drive the next wave of AI breakthroughs. | $10M / Convertible Note / Jan 30, 2021 |
Co-Investors
About Banyan Ventures
Banyan Ventures is a Seed Stage New York City-based Venture Capital Firm investing in AI-Native Infrastructure and AI-Native Application Startups.
Banyan Ventures Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Sam Awrabi
Founder & Managing Partner
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FAQ
What does Sam Awrabi invest in?
Sam Awrabi invests primarily in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Software startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 5 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact Sam Awrabi?
Public channels for Sam Awrabi include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Sam Awrabi last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Sam Awrabi closed in Aug 2024. Shizune tracks 5 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 Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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