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Di-Ann Eisnor is a Venture Partner at Obvious Ventures and the highly successful co-founder of Waze. She is an accomplished entrepreneur, technology executive, and investor known for her expertise in building innovative platforms and scaling companies with significant impact.
Di-Ann Eisnor invests in "world-positive" companies through Obvious Ventures. Her focus areas include technology that addresses major global challenges, particularly in mobility, data-driven solutions, consumer platforms, sustainable systems, and urban innovation. She seeks ventures with strong potential for both financial returns and positive societal impact.
Di-Ann Eisnor works as a Venture Partner at Obvious Ventures, a venture capital firm dedicated to investing in companies that combine profit and purpose. She also has a distinguished career history at companies like Waze, Google Maps, and Google Sidewalk Labs.
Di-Ann Eisnor is a Venture Partner at Obvious Ventures and the Co-founder and CEO of Core, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. She previously served as Vice President of Platform and Partnerships at Waze, where she spearheaded global growth leading up to the mapping company's $1.3 billion acquisition by Google. Following the acquisition, Eisnor worked as the Director of Urban Systems at Google's Area 120 incubator and later joined the board of directors for the publicly traded logistics enterprise Saia Inc. In her current venture capital role, she targets early-stage investments with check sizes ranging from $1 million to $3 million across the construction technology, future of work, and marketplace sectors. An Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow and New York University graduate, her career focuses on scaling innovative urban infrastructure, mobility systems, and localized distribution platforms.
Di-Ann Eisnor stands as a prominent Venture Partner at Obvious Ventures, bringing an unparalleled blend of entrepreneurial success, operational expertise, and a deep commitment to impact investing. Best known as the co-founder of Waze, the groundbreaking navigation app acquired by Google, Eisnor has consistently demonstrated her ability to envision and build transformative technology that reshapes industries and improves daily life. Her role at Obvious Ventures is pivotal, where she leverages her extensive experience to identify, mentor, and support "world-positive" companies poised for significant growth and societal benefit.
At Obvious Ventures, Di-Ann Eisnor is instrumental in advancing the firm's mission to invest in entrepreneurs solving systemic problems. Her investment focus aligns perfectly with Obvious Ventures' core thesis: backing companies that generate both financial returns and measurable positive impact. Eisnor is particularly interested in ventures that harness data, artificial intelligence, and community-driven platforms to address challenges in areas such as sustainable mobility, urban innovation, climate technology, and the future of work. Her insights are invaluable to portfolio companies, offering strategic guidance on product development, market penetration, scaling operations, and fostering vibrant user communities. She helps founders navigate complex growth trajectories, drawing directly from her own journey of building a global platform from the ground up.
Eisnor's illustrious career background provides a rich foundation for her current role. Prior to joining Obvious Ventures, she made an indelible mark on the tech landscape as the co-founder and Vice President of Community and Mapping at Waze. Under her leadership, Waze cultivated a passionate global community of users who collaboratively mapped and updated real-time traffic information, ultimately disrupting traditional navigation systems. Following Waze's acquisition by Google in 2013, Eisnor continued her impactful work within Google, serving as Director of Growth for Google Maps. She later took on the role of Head of Growth at Google Sidewalk Labs, focusing on urban innovation and smart city solutions, further solidifying her expertise in leveraging technology for public good. Before Waze, she founded Platial, an early social mapping company, showcasing her long-standing interest in location-based services and community engagement. Her early career also included significant roles in digital media and advertising, honing her skills in user acquisition and brand building.
While specific direct investments are often confidential, Di-Ann Eisnor's most notable "investment" is undoubtedly her foundational work with Waze, which redefined personal navigation and demonstrated the power of crowdsourcing. As a Venture Partner, her influence extends across Obvious Ventures' diverse portfolio, where she acts as a strategic advisor and mentor. Her unique perspective as a founder who successfully scaled a company to global prominence is an immense asset to the startups she engages with. Eisnor's contributions go beyond capital; she provides the strategic foresight and operational wisdom necessary for early-stage companies to achieve their full potential, ensuring they are not only profitable but also deeply impactful. Her career is a testament to the power of combining entrepreneurial drive with a clear vision for a better world.
