Grace Isford

As a Principal based in their New York City office, Grace Isford invests at the nexus of web3, data infrastructure, and applications of AI/ML especially in healthcare and financial services.

Grace seeks to invest in companies that leverage breakthrough technology to improve individual efficiency and agency. She focuses on crypto and blockchain infrastructure companies building the next-gen web3 stack as well as data and machine-learning startups that are hyper-personalizing user experiences and transforming legacy industries.

Before joining Lux, Grace was a principal at Canvas Ventures, where she started as a campus scout while attending Stanford University before becoming a full-time investor in 2019. While there, she sourced 10 investments, including open-source robotic process automation platform Robocorp and blockchain-powered, real-time data sharing platform Vendia, which was co-founded by AWS Lambda inventor Tim Wagner and Shruthi Rao, who led Amazon Managed Blockchain.

Prior to Canvas, Grace worked on the LP side at the Stanford Management Company, in product at edtech startup Handshake, and in growth equity at Stripes Group. She earned a Bachelors of Science and a Masters of Science in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford, where she was a Mayfield Fellow and served as Co-President of Stanford Women in Business, the campus’s largest pre-professional organization for women. In addition, she is on the board of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, the university’s entrepreneurship center, and is an active member of All Raise, focused on accelerating the success of female and non-binary founders and funders.

Grace is originally from Connecticut, although has lived in Tokyo, Japan, and aspires to re-learn Japanese. She’s an avid runner and cyclist.