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Phil Inagaki
Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer · Xora
Seed AI infrastructure Deep tech
A deep tech founder at 24, he now runs Xora's investing and its venture lab, backing AI infrastructure such as Celestial AI and HyperLight.
Phil Inagaki founded the semiconductor materials company Polyera at 24 and spent the first 15 years of his career as a deep tech founder and chief executive. He is now managing partner and chief investment officer of Xora, Temasek's early-stage investment platform, and leads Xora Venture Labs, its startup incubation practice.
Polyera and Princeton
By the time he moved into venture capital at 38 he had been both a founding and a hired CEO, raised rounds from pre-seed to Series D, and commercialized several technologies.
He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a B.A. in physics and holds 12 U.S. patents.
From The Engine to Xora
He started his venture capital career at The Engine in Boston, Massachusetts. At Xora he led the firm's investments in Celestial AI and HyperLight, and he co-founded and chairs Amperesand.
In 2026 Xora led a $53 million expansion of the seed round of Hang Ten Systems, which builds and modernizes software for large companies with small AI-assisted engineering teams.