Chris Pedregal
Co-founder and CEO of Granola; two-time Google acqui-hire before building a London AI unicorn.
Last refreshed: 13 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
How does a two-time Google acqui-hire build a $1.5bn AI notes company in three years?
Timeline for Chris Pedregal
Mentioned in: Granola hits $1.5bn in three years
UK Startups and Innovation- Who is the CEO of Granola AI?
- Chris Pedregal is co-founder and CEO of Granola. He previously founded Socratic (acquired by Google in 2018) and Stack (acquired by Google Drive in 2022).Source: event
- How did Granola reach unicorn status so fast?
- Granola was founded in March 2023 and hit a $1.5bn valuation by April 2026, driven by 2.5x revenue growth in 2026 vs full-year 2025 and a $125m Series C led by Index Ventures.Source: Lowdown
Background
Chris Pedregal is the co-founder and CEO of Granola, the London-based AI notetaking platform that reached a $1.5bn valuation in 2026 after raising $125m in a Series C led by Index Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. Founded in March 2023, Granola tripled its revenue in 2026 compared to the full-year 2025 total, reaching unicorn status three years after launch.
Pedregal built his career at Google, joining in 2008 as an Associate Product Manager working on Gmail, Search, Maps, and Google Now. He is a two-time founder before Granola: he founded Socratic in 2013, an AI tutoring platform for high-school students, which Google acquired in 2018. He then founded Stack, an AI scanner and organiser, which was acquired by Google Drive in 2022. After the Stack acquisition he worked as a Product Lead at Google before leaving in 2022 to start Granola. He moved to London with his English wife and children in 2020.
His background in consumer AI products and two prior successful exits to Google shapes Granola's design-first, minimalist approach. Where rivals add features, Pedregal and co-founder Sam Stephenson have consistently constrained scope, a bet that has paid off in a crowded AI productivity market.