Deena Shakir
VCGeneral Partner, Lux Capital
Lux Capital GP focused on healthcare and deeptech AI
Background
Deena Shakir is a General Partner at Lux Capital, which she joined in late 2019 after serving as a partner at GV (Google Ventures). At Google she led product partnerships in health, search, and AI/ML, and directed social impact investments at Google.org. She previously served as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton. At Lux she invests across stages in women's health, digital health infrastructure, AI, defense, robotics, and fintech. She is a lecturer in management at Stanford GSB and was named to the WSJ's Top Senior Women to Watch in Venture Capital in 2021. In January 2026 Lux closed its ninth fund at $1.5 billion, the firm's largest to date.
Investment Thesis
Backs extraordinary founders building transformative technologies at the frontier, with particular focus on women's health, AI applied to life sciences, and underserved markets.
Investment Focus
Stages
Typical check: $100K–$100M+ (stage-dependent; median ~$25M)
Sectors
Based in: San Francisco Bay Area, USA (global portfolio) (North America)
Notable Investments
Hugging Face
Open-source AI/ML platform; $4.5B valuation
Runway
Generative AI video creation platform
Anduril
Lux Capital portfolio; defense technology
Applied Intuition
Autonomous vehicle simulation and ADAS tooling
Maven Clinic
Co-led $110M Series D; women's and family health platform
Ramp
Corporate spend management fintech; $16B+ valuation
Waymark
AI-powered Medicaid care navigation; health equity focus
Physical Intelligence
General-purpose robot AI; Lux portfolio