Chris Pedregal
Chris Pedregal is the co-founder and chief executive of Granola, an AI notepad for meetings. He previously co-founded the learning app Socratic with Shreyans Bhansali, which GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry acquired in 2018.
Contents13 sections
Key facts
Before 2013Stanford and Early Ventures
By his own account he graduated from Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityStanford University is a research university in California founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1885 and opened in 1891.Open the full entry with a BS in computer science and an MA in journalism, started his first company, ScramblerMail, at 19, and co-founded a second, Apture, which Google acquired in 2011; he also worked as a product manager at Google on Gmail, Google Maps and Search.[1]
2013Co-founding Socratic
He co-founded the online question-and-answer learning platform Socratic.org in New York with Shreyans Bhansali; in 2013 the company raised a $1.5 million seed round led by Spark CapitalSpark CapitalSpark Capital is a U.S. venture capital firm founded in Boston in 2005, with offices in San Francisco, New York and Boston. Its early-stage and growth funds back technology businesses across fintech, enterprise software, AI and consumer products. Investments have included Twitter, Tumblr, Oculus, Plaid and Anthropic.Open the full entry, with participants including Betaworks and Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry.[2]
March 2015Socratic Series A
In March 2015 Socratic raised a $6 million Series A from Shasta Ventures, Spark Capital and the Omidyar Network.[3]
January 2016Forbes 30 Under 30
In January 2016 he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 education list for 2016 as co-founder of Socratic.[4]
2018–2019Google Acquires Socratic
Google acquired Socratic in 2018 on undisclosed terms, making the deal public only in August 2019 when it relaunched the app on iOS.[5]
He says Socratic reached 10 million users before the acquisition and won an App of the Year award.[6]
2023Founding Granola
GranolaGranolaGranola is a London-based AI meeting-notes software company. Its product combines user notes with transcripts for summaries, cross-meeting queries and collaboration, and has expanded into voice typing.Open the full entry Labs Ltd was incorporated in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2023, with him and Sam StephensonSam StephensonSam Stephenson is a British product designer and co-founder of Granola, an AI notepad for meetings, where he leads design. He started Granola with Chris Pedregal in 2023.Open the full entry appointed directors that day.[7]
Until April 14, 2023, he was registered as a person with significant control holding 50 to 75 percent of the shares; the company has since recorded no registrable person.[8]
May 2024Launching Granola
On May 22, 2024, writing as co-founder and CEO, he publicly launched Granola, an AI notepad for meetings, recalling that at Socratic “we used AI to help millions of students learn.”[9]
October 2024Series A
In October 2024 Granola announced a $20 million Series A led by Spark Capital.[10]
March 2026Series C at $1.5 Billion
In March 2026 Granola raised a $125 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation, up from $250 million at its previous $43 million round, bringing total funding to $192 million.[11]
The round was led by Danny Rimer of Index Ventures.[12]
He said, “Conversation transcripts are the richest source of context for what’s happening across your company.”[13]
June 2026Advice to Founders
In June 2026 he advised founders to “Care more about your particular problem,” noting that Granola worked closely with about 150 early users for a year before launch.[14]
July 2026Class Action Against Granola
On July 30, 2026, a proposed class action was filed against Granola, Inc. and Granola Labs Ltd. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California; Pedregal is not a defendant.[15]
The plaintiff alleges that Granola captures participants’ conversations without their knowledge, that non-users cannot consent or opt out, and that their words may be used to improve its models; these are allegations not yet decided by the court.[16]
September 2026HumanX Europe
He was listed as a speaker at HumanX Europe, held at RAI Amsterdam from September 22 to 24, 2026.[17]
Sources
- Christopher Pedregal (opens in a new window)
- Socratic.org Goes from Idea to $1.5M in Six Months (opens in a new window)
- Did Socratic.org Raise $6 Million? (opens in a new window)
- Forbes' '30 Under 30' Education Changemakers to Watch in 2016 (opens in a new window)
- Google discloses its acquisition of mobile learning app Socratic as it relaunches on iOS (opens in a new window)
- Chris Pedregal (opens in a new window)
- GRANOLA LABS LTD officers - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (opens in a new window)
- GRANOLA LABS LTD persons with significant control - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (opens in a new window)
- Introducing Granola: the AI-powered notepad for meetings (opens in a new window)
- Granola raises $20M to build the AI notepad that makes you smarter (opens in a new window)
- Granola raises $125M, hits $1.5B valuation as it expands from meeting notetaker to enterprise AI app (opens in a new window)
- Granola raises $125M to put your company's context to work (opens in a new window)
- Granola raises $125M at $1.5BN valuation (opens in a new window)
- Zoom and Google Already Had This Product. But He Built It Anyway and Hit $1.5 Billion: 'Care More About Your Particular Problem' (opens in a new window)
- Class Action Complaint, Chamberlain v. Granola, Inc. and Granola Labs Ltd., No. 3:26-cv-07926 (N.D. Cal.) (opens in a new window)
- Granola sued over bot-free meeting capture and AI training defaults (opens in a new window)
- Christopher Pedregal (opens in a new window)