Gil Elbaz
Tech entrepreneur who founded Applied Semantics and funded the Common Crawl project.
First Mentioned
8/1/2026, 7:11:48 AM
Last Updated
8/1/2026, 7:12:24 AM
Research Retrieved
8/1/2026, 7:12:24 AM
Summary
Gil Elbaz is an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist best known for co-founding Applied Semantics in 1998, which developed contextual advertising technology that was acquired by Google in 2003 and became the foundation for Google AdSense. In 2007, Elbaz founded the non-profit Common Crawl Foundation to democratize access to web crawl data, an open index that has funded critical research and served as key training data for AI models like OpenAI's ChatGPT. He also founded location data platform Factual, co-founded TenOneTen Ventures, and serves on the boards of Caltech and the XPRIZE Foundation.
Referenced in 1 Document
Research Data
Extracted Attributes
Gender
Male
Education
B.S. in Engineering & Applied Science and Economics, California Institute of Technology
Occupation
Entrepreneur, Investor, Philanthropist, Business Executive
Citizenship
United States
Date of Birth
1975-01-01
Timeline
- Gil Elbaz co-founded Applied Semantics (ASI), developing contextual advertising technology that created AdSense. (Source: Common Crawl - Team - Gil Elbaz)
1998-01-01
- Google acquired Applied Semantics, and Elbaz became Engineering Director at Google's LA/Santa Monica office. (Source: Common Crawl - Team - Gil Elbaz)
2003-01-01
- Elbaz founded the Common Crawl Foundation to build and openly disseminate a comprehensive petabyte-scale web crawl of the Internet. (Source: Gil Elbaz - Wikipedia)
2007-01-01
- Elbaz founded Factual to democratize access to quality location and global data. (Source: Common Crawl - Team - Gil Elbaz)
2007-01-01
- Elbaz was named Young Alumni Trustee to the Board of Trustees at Caltech. (Source: Gil Elbaz - Wikipedia)
2008-01-01
- Elbaz co-founded venture capital firm TenOneTen Ventures with David Waxman. (Source: Common Crawl - Team - Gil Elbaz)
2013-01-01
- Factual merged with Foursquare, and Elbaz became Co-Chairman of the Board of the combined entity while joining TenOneTen Ventures full-time. (Source: Common Crawl - Team - Gil Elbaz)
2020-01-01
Wikipedia
View on WikipediaGil Elbaz
Gil Elbaz is an American entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He co-founded Applied Semantics (ASI), along with his brother Eytan Elbaz and his former classmate Adam Weissman. He is the founder and CEO of Factual, an information-sharing startup. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Board of Common Crawl, a non-profit organization dedicated to democratizing access to Internet information.
Web Search Results
- Gil Elbaz - Wikipedia
American entrepreneur Gil Elbaz is an American entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He co-founded Applied Semantics (ASI), along with his brother Eytan Elbaz and his former classmate Adam Weissman. He is the founder and CEO of Factual, an information-sharing startup. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Board of Common Crawl, a non-profit organization dedicated to democratizing access to Internet information. ## Education [edit] From 1987 to 1991, he attended the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he earned a bachelor's degree with a double major in engineering & applied science and economics. ## Career [edit] [...] In 2007, Elbaz founded the Common Crawl Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to building, maintaining and openly disseminating a comprehensive crawl of the Internet for the purpose of enabling a new wave of innovation, education, and research. Elbaz serves as the Foundation’s President and also as a member of the Board of Directors along with Carl Malamud and Nova Spivack.[citation needed] Elbaz is a supporter of his alma mater Caltech and in 2008, he was given the honor to be named Young Alumni Trustee to the Board of Trustees. ## References [edit] [...] In 2008, Elbaz founded Factual, an open data platform for application developers that leverages large scale aggregation and community exchange. Factual launched in October 2009. Elbaz self-funded the company for a little while, then in 2009 he raised over US$27 million from venture capital and angel investors, including the VC firms Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures and the digital technology thought-leader Esther Dyson, who in addition to investing, sits on Factual’s Board of Advisors. As of Q1 2018, Factual employs over 150 people, provides services to numerous users and partners with hundreds of customers including Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Uber, Google's Doubleclick, The Trade Desk and many more. In 2020, Factual merged with Foursquare "Foursquare (company)"), and Elbaz now
- Common Crawl - Team - Gil Elbaz
Gil Elbaz is an accomplished entrepreneur and investor and a pioneer of natural language technology. In 1998, Gil co-founded Applied Semantics, the original developer of AdSense. In 2003 the company was acquired by Google and Gil became Engineering Director for Google’s new LA office. In 2007, Gil founded Factual to democratize access to quality data. In 2020, Factual merged with Foursquare and today Gil is Co-Chairman of the board of a combined entity which generated $150m in combined revenue at the time of the merger. With David Waxman, Gil launched TenOneTen Ventures in 2013 and raised their first true fund in 2014. He joined TenOneTen on a full time basis upon relinquishing his CEO role in 2020. Gil has also been very active in the non-profit arena. Most notably, in 2007 he founded [...] in the non-profit arena. Most notably, in 2007 he founded the Common Crawl Foundation which provides a petabyte-scale web crawl free of cost. He also sits on the Board of Directors of XPRIZE Foundation which leverages the power of competition to catalyze innovation. Gil earned his bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of Technology with a double major in Engineering & Applied Science and Economics. [...] Gil Elbaz # Gil Elbaz ## Chairman LinkedIn Logo.svg) LinkedIn Logo
- Gil Elbaz | Founder and CEO | Worth
Gil Elbaz is an accomplished entrepreneur and pioneer of natural language technology. In 1998, Gil co-founded Applied Semantics Inc. (ASI) which developed contextual advertising products, including ASI’s AdSense. In 2003, Google acquired ASI and Gil stayed on as the director of engineering for the Santa Monica office, continuing to work on AdSense and other products. Prior to founding ASI, Gil worked in engineering roles at IBM, Sybase and SGI. In 2007, Gil left Google to found Los Angeles-based Factual, which provides access to definitive global data for powering web and mobile apps, mobile advertising, and enterprise solutions. Factual’s first offering is its Global Places suite of data and APIs, which provides access to more than 58 million places in 50 countries along with entity [...] than 58 million places in 50 countries along with entity mapping, resolution, and geo ad-targeting services. Factual is funded by Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures. Gil earned his bachelor’s degree from Caltech with a double major in Engineering & Applied Science and Economics. Gil is on the Board of Trustees at Caltech and the X-Prize Foundation, and is also an active angel investor. [...] Skip to content worth SUBSCRIBESUBSCRIBE worth placeholder ad People Gil Elbaz # Gil Elbaz Founder and CEO, Factual
- Gil and Elyssa Elbaz Profile Page | XPRIZE Foundation
## Get Involved Be a catalyst for impact: build, back, and amplify. Deep Tech + Exploration Energy + Climate + Nature Food + Water + Waste Health Learning + Society Gil and Elyssa Elbaz ## Gil Elbaz is the Founder and CEO of Factual, a data company that enables developers, publishers and advertisers to build highly relevant mobile experiences using the context of location. Prior to Factual, Gil co-founded Applied Semantics Inc. (ASI), which developed contextual advertising products, including ASI's AdSense. Google acquired ASI in 2003, where Gil stayed on as the director of engineering, continuing to work on AdSense and other products. [...] In 2008, Gil founded The Common Crawl Foundation, a non-profit with the goal of democratizing access to web information to enable greater innovation in research, business and education. He continues to serve on the board there as well as on the board of the X Prize Foundation. Gil is an active angel investor. He recently co-founded TenOneTen ventures with David Waxman, and his notable investments include Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto for $1.2 billion), GoodReads (acquired by Amazon), Scopely, and Kaggle. Gil earned a B.S. with a double major in Engineering & Applied Science and Economics from the California Institute of Technology.
- Gil Elbaz Profile Page | XPRIZE Foundation
## Get Involved Be a catalyst for impact: build, back, and amplify. Deep Tech + Exploration Energy + Climate + Nature Food + Water + Waste Health Learning + Society Gil Elbaz ## Gil Elbaz is the Founder and CEO of Factual, a data company that enables developers, publishers and advertisers to build highly relevant mobile experiences using the context of location. Prior to Factual, Gil co-founded Applied Semantics Inc. (ASI), which developed contextual advertising products, including ASI's AdSense. Google acquired ASI in 2003, where Gil stayed on as the director of engineering, continuing to work on AdSense and other products. [...] In 2008, Gil founded The Common Crawl Foundation, a non-profit with the goal of democratizing access to web information to enable greater innovation in research, business and education. He continues to serve on the board there as well as on the board of the X Prize Foundation. Gil is an active angel investor. He recently co-founded TenOneTen ventures with David Waxman, and his notable investments include Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto for $1.2 billion), GoodReads (acquired by Amazon), Scopely, and Kaggle. Gil earned a B.S. with a double major in Engineering & Applied Science and Economics from the California Institute of Technology. Deep Tech + Exploration Energy + Climate + Nature Food + Water + Waste Health Learning + Society ### Who We Are ### Grand Challenges
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Date Of Birth
1/1/1975