ABOUT

HEMANT TANEJA

INVESTOR • FOUNDER • AUTHOR

I am the CEO of General Catalyst, a founder, investor, and author.

My vision for General Catalyst is to be the world’s foremost investment and transformation company, supporting global resilience through applied AI. 


I first laid out my AI thesis in my 2018 book Unscaled, which explored how the economy of the future will be won by upstarts leveraging AI for hyper-focused markets. I believe in investing in the critical systems that underpin modern democracies and their allies—our global resilience thesis—and transforming every industry through innovative partnerships. 


I am an early investor in companies like Stripe, Samsara (NYSE: IOT), Snap (NYSE: SNAP), Gitlab (NASDAQ: GTLB), Grammarly, Gusto, Applied Intuition, Anduril, Ro, and Canva. My recent focus as an investor has been on Applied AI and sustainability with focus on companies like Crescendo, Re:Build Manufacturing, and Charm Industrial. 


One critical industry I’ve set a goal to transform is healthcare. My 2020 book, UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance, co-authored with Dr. Stephen Klasko, CEO of Jefferson Health, details our thesis for how the healthcare system needs to transform a “sick care” system into a Health Assurance system that is proactive, accessible and affordable. I have helped create several companies to architect a health assurance system in America including Livongo (acquired by Teladoc in an $18.5B merger, the largest in digital health history at the time), Commure, Transcarent, Tendo, Homeward, and Hippocratic. 

I also serve as the Founder and Chairman of the Health Assurance Transformation Company (HATCo) that is working closely with several major health systems worldwide to drive their transformations. HATCO also announced its intention to acquire Summa Health, an integrated health system in Akron, Ohio in 2024.


I started my career as a founder, building a small mobile software company that was acquired, before joining General Catalyst as an entrepreneur-in-residence in 2002. I found my passion as an entrepreneur serving entrepreneurs and have been with GC investing and building companies ever since.

I’m an advocate for Responsible Innovation, aligning innovation with the long-term interests of society by engineering for growth and good with focus on inclusivity and sustainability as outlined in my 2022 book Intended Consequences: How to Build Market-Leading Companies with Responsible Innovation.


In addition to my roles serving on many of our portfolio company boards, I am also Co-Founder and Chairman of the non-profits Responsible Innovation Labs and Advanced Energy United, trustee at Northeastern University and the Stanford School of Medicine Board of Fellows, and am a founding board member of Khan Lab School, an innovative K-12 school.


I hold five degrees from MIT: M.Eng. EECS, S.M. Operations Research, S.B. Biology, S.B. Mathematics, and S.B. EECS. And I’m a proud husband and father to three kids.

About General Catalyst

General Catalyst is a global investment and transformation company that partners with the world’s most ambitious entrepreneurs to drive resilience and applied AI. We support founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond.


Our business is a transformation flywheel, accelerating the impact that innovation can have at scale through the synthesis of relationships, insights, and rapid adoption. From our Health Assurance Transformation Company - partnering and innovating with health systems - to our General Catalyst Institute - working with governments worldwide to shape policy - GC is unlocking an engine for founders, partners, and society as a whole to expand what’s possible.


With offices in San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Berlin, Bangalore, and London, we have supported the growth of 800+ businesses, including Airbnb, Anduril, Applied Intuition, Commure, Glean, Guild, Gusto, Helsing, Hubspot, Kayak, Livongo, Mistral, Ramp, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, Sword, and Zepto.

INVESTOR

Alsym Energy


Altos Labs


Anduril


Applied Intuition


AtoB


Beacon


Charm Industrial


Classdojo


CRED


Circulo


Cityblock Health


Color


Commure


Crescendo AI


Eight Sleep


Elemy


Elevate K-12


Flowcarbon


Fourier


Fractyl


Fundbox


Grammarly


Gusto


Helsing AI


Heyday


Hippocratic AI


Homeward Health


Jasper Health


Karius


Livongo


Loop Health


MD Alley


Maribel


Memora


Mistral


Nirvana


Nova Credit


Ossium



Pacific Fusion


Paradigm


Polymarket


Puzzle


Re:Build Manufacturing


Redesign Health


Ro


Samsara


Snap


Sora


Spring


Sprinter Health


Tempo


Tendo


Thoughtspot


Transcarent


Truvian


Zepto

General Catalyst is a global investment and transformation company that partners with the world's most ambitious entrepreneurs to drive resilience and applied AI.

General Catalyst