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Our Story
We – Rana el Kaliouby and Gabi Zijderveld – founded Blue Tulip Ventures as we believe this time of unprecedented AI innovation presents a massive economic opportunity and the potential to tackle some of humanity’s biggest challenges. We have conviction that the best way to realize this is through human-centric AI – that is in service of humans and the planet we live on.
In our careers and a decade of collaboration we have laid the foundation for human-centric AI and now is the time to make it the gold standard for how AI is done right. With Blue Tulip Ventures we do this at scale through venture capital, by backing the most innovative AI startups and building a thriving ecosystem.
Blue Tulip Founders
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Rana is a renowned AI scientist, entrepreneur, innovator, investor and thought leader. She was previously founder and CEO of Affectiva, a MIT spin-out, which she sold in 2021. She also raised a $12M fund that has been deployed in 40 early-stage AI companies. She is a venture partner at BOLD Capital Partners and an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School. Rana is the host of Pioneers of Podcast. She has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list and Forbes' Top 50 Women in Tech. She holds a Ph.D. from University of Cambridge and postdoc from MIT.
Gabi is a seasoned technology executive, innovator and startup mentor with 10+ years building and commercializing AI products. She has decades of operating experience at 7 startups and two public companies, including IBM. She has led product and marketing teams, and built partnerships and ecosystems. She has created new technology categories, devised go to market strategies and launched numerous v1 products. Gabi loves mentoring early stage AI startups in all aspects of growing their business.
Why Us
01
Decades of AI & Startup Expertise
We understand AI technology, trends and business models and what it takes to launch, scale and exit startups – we have done it before.
02
Global Networks & Influence
We are well ingrained in innovation ecosystems and active in technology, AI and leadership networks. We influence the AI narrative.
03
Highly Respected & Stellar Reputations
We are well known and regarded for our work in AI and in startups. Founders find us and want us on the cap table.
04
We find the deals, we win the deals
We see exciting deals early and are invited to participate. Founders want us to to support their growth.
05
AI Investment Experience
Rana’s “Fund 0” invested in 40 early-stage AI companies. She has won 100% of the deals she wanted to invest in.
Our Advisors
Our advisors are experts in AI, venture capital, and innovation ecosystems out of academia and industry.
