Billionaire Steve Cohen hired 2 investors from the CIA's secretive VC fund for a new Palo Alto office

Billionaire Steve Cohen has opened a Palo Alto office to invest in early-stage companies focused on big data and machine learning, and he has hired two people who invested on behalf of the CIA. The two men leading the effort are Daniel Gwak and Sri Chandrasekar, who previously worked at In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm that is mostly funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. The pair started their new roles on May 1, according to Matthew Granade, Point72's chief market intelligence officer. The new Silicon Valley office is part of Point72 Ventures, Cohen's venture capital unit, which is legally separate from his $11 billion family office, Point72 Asset Management. Cohen launched Point72 Ventures last year, hiring Pete Casella of JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments to help lead the effort.