# Tanguy Chau

> Tanguy Chau is the Co-Founder and CEO of Paxton AI, a Palo Alto-based legal tech company building an AI-powered assistant for lawyers. A Belgian-born, MIT-trained chemical engineer who competed for Belgium in sailing and chemistry olympiads, Chau spent seven years as a venture capitalist at Formation 8 and Mayfield Fund before co-founding Paxton in 2022. Under his leadership, Paxton raised a $22M Series A in January 2025 (total $28M), achieved a 94% non-hallucination rate on the Stanford Legal Hallucination Benchmark, and grew 14x in monthly recurring revenue over nine months - serving clients from solo practitioners to the nation's 20 largest law firms.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Paxton AI
- **Organizations:** Paxton AI, Kauffman Fellows (Class 20), MIT Corporation (Board Member, 2012-2017), Harvard COOP Board of Directors (2008-2011), Formation 8, Mayfield Fund, McKinsey & Company, Sample6 Technologies
- **From:** Belgium
- **Nationality:** Belgian
- **Education:** PhD, Chemical Engineering, MIT, MBA, Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management, MS, Chemical Engineering, MIT, BS, Chemical Engineering (4.0 GPA, Departmental Citation), UC Berkeley, Transfer studies, De Anza College, Computer Science (in progress), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Belgian National Laureate in Chemistry (1999), Represented Belgium at the International Chemistry Olympiad, Competed for Belgium in the European Sailing Championship

## Career timeline

- **2000** — Arrived in California at age 17 from Belgium, initially failed Berkeley's English language test
- **2004** — Graduated UC Berkeley with a 4.0 GPA, Departmental Citation, University Medal Finalist
- **2005** — Worked as researcher at Accelergy startup in Shanghai
- **2008** — Joined Harvard COOP Board of Directors
- **2010** — Completed joint MS/PhD in Chemical Engineering and MBA at MIT
- **2010** — Early career included engagement manager at McKinsey & Company
- **2012** — Elected to MIT Corporation (Board of Trustees)
- **2012** — Joined Angeleno Group as growth equity investor (energy investments, Los Angeles)
- **2014** — Joined Formation 8 as Investment Principal, focused on IT and diversified technology
- **2017** — Joined Mayfield Fund as VC Principal, focused on enterprise sector
- **2019** — Co-founded/co-produced TellEverything.org multimedia project
- **2021** — Completed Kauffman Fellows Program, Class 20
- **2022** — Co-founded Paxton AI with Mike Ulin (CTO)
- **2023** — Paxton raised $6M seed round led by WVV Capital; investors including Andrew Ng's AI Fund and Dick Parsons
- **2024** — Spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024; Paxton grew 14x in MRR and 8x in customers over nine months
- **2025** — Paxton raised $22M Series A led by Unusual Ventures, bringing total funding to $28M

## Achievements

- Belgian National Laureate in Chemistry (1999)
- Represented Belgium at the International Chemistry Olympiad
- Competed for Belgium in the European Sailing Championship
- UC Berkeley University Medal Finalist (one of five finalists for highest graduating senior honor)
- UC Berkeley Departmental Citation in Chemical Engineering with 4.0 GPA
- MIT Corporation (Board of Trustees) member, elected 2012
- Kauffman Fellows Program, Class 20
- Led Paxton AI to a 14x growth in monthly recurring revenue over nine months
- Paxton AI achieved 94% non-hallucination rate on the Stanford Legal Hallucination Benchmark
- Raised $28M total for Paxton AI ($6M seed 2023, $22M Series A January 2025)
- Speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 - audience-voted breakout session winner
- Forbes Tech Council member

## Latest updates

- **2025-01** — Paxton raised $22M Series A led by Unusual Ventures, bringing total funding to $28M
- **2024-10** — Spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on a panel titled 'How AI is supercharging tools for knowledge workers' - voted audience choice winner
- **2024-07** — Paxton AI published results showing 94% non-hallucination rate on Stanford Legal Hallucination Benchmark
- **2023-09** — Appeared on '3 Geeks and a Law Blog' podcast to discuss how AI allows legal work to reach new heights
- **2023-09** — Paxton raised $6M seed round with investors including Andrew Ng's AI Fund, WVV Capital, Kyber Knight, 25Madison, and Dick Parsons (former Citi Chairman)

## Links

- Website: https://paxton.ai
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tanguychau
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/paxtonai

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/tanguy-chau
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-13