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Lake Dai

Managing Partner at Sancus Ventures

San Francisco Bay Area

Overview 

Lake Dai is a VC and CMU Applied AI Adjunct Professor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Notable career highlights include founding Sancus Ventures and co-founding Benevolent AI Future, as well as serving on the Board of Directors for GIA and Kubit. Lake has invested in companies like zCloak Network, Cased, Workera, Venti Technologies, Blue J, and Ubiquity6.

Work Experience 

  • Founder, Managing Partner

    2022 - Current

    Sancus Ventures invests in enterprise software infrastructure and essential building blocks, focusing on foundational areas such as data, computing, orchestration, observability, AI alignment, privacy and security. Each member of the Sancus investment team is a former founder, tech influencer, and developer community leader who has successfully built and scaled leading software infrastructure across 3 economic cycles.

  • Adjunct Professor, Applied AI

    2016

    Faculty of CMU Integrated Innovation Institute and Information Networking Institute, teaching Applied AI and AI Ethics courses; Advisory Board Member, CMU TECH (Technical Entrepreneur Coaching Hub).

  • Advisory Board Member

    2024

AngelList is a U.S. website for startups, angel investors, and job-seekers looking to work at startups.

Raised $170,200,000.00 from Beyond Capital, FJ Labs, Nomad Ventures, Kyle Tibbitts, Angel Collective Opportunity Fund, Sprint Vc, Ride Home Fund, Palumni VC, Vishal Rao and Tiger Global Management.

  • Board Governor (Audit & Risk, Finance, and Governance Committees)

    2022

    Established in 1931 and operates in 11 countries, GIA is the leading institution that protects the gem and jewelry buying public through research, education and laboratory services.

  • Co-founder, Vice Chair

    2023

    Benevolent AI Future brings together builders and funders for AI solutions that serve the public good.

  • Board Member, Independent

    2022

Kubit is an innovator in the product analytics industry that provides a revolutionary no-code solution to self-service analytics.

Raised $22,800,000.00 from Global Venture Capital, Shasta Ventures, Insight Partners and TSVC.

  • Faculty, Stanford Women on Boards (SWB)

    2022

    2025 - Present: Faculty 2022 - 2024: Led the Technology Experience Group, grew members from 200+ to over 700 board directors and board candidates in the technology sector.

  • Guest Lecturer, AI Governance, Organizational Structure and Growth

    2020

  • Advisory Board Member

    2017 - 2022

    Founded in 1989, WITI is a worldwide non-profit organization to empower women leadership in technology.

Articles About Lake

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