The NVIDIA Mafia
Jensen Huang, the visionary co-founder of NVIDIA, didn't start out in the world of graphics processing and artificial intelligence. Before diving into the world of GPUs, Jensen was designing microprocessors. But it was a chance encounter at a computer graphics conference that changed everything.
He realized that graphics could be the key to transforming computing as we know it. Inspired by this epiphany, Jensen and his co-founders decided to venture into uncharted territory, creating a company that would ultimately redefine the boundaries of visual computing.
NVIDIA was born, and with it, a revolution in graphics, gaming, and AI that continues to shape our digital world today.
The NVIDIA Mafia
Former employees of Nvidia have collectively raised $1.4 billion in funding and started 74 companies, with AI and Software as the leading industries. Below we cover the top 47 companies and their founders.
PS: Are you an Nvidia employee/alum interested in getting your community together to invest in the community (and earn carry/other benefits along the way)? Or are you a member of another community that you think would make for an amazing startup investment community? 😉
Learn more about us and sign up for the waitlist here.
Most money raised:
Applied Intuition
Applied Intuition provides software infrastructure to safely develop, test, and deploy autonomous vehicles at scale. Founded in 2017 by Peter Ludwig and Qasar Younis, They have raised a total of $351.5 million in capital over 5 funding rounds.
The company is backed by prominent investors- Andreessen Horowitz, Hemant Taneja, Mike Maples, Elad Gil, Bilal Zuberi, Lee Fixel, Semil Shah, and Jeannette Zu Furstenberg.
Peter Ludwig interned at NVIDIA and then at Microsoft as a Software Engineer. He started working as a Product Manager at Google in 2012 before moving on to start Applied Intuition in 2017.
Qasar Younis also worked at Google as a Group Product Manager and then joined Y Combinator as a General Partner and Chief Operating Officer that led him to becoming the founder of Applied Intuition.
The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has offices in LA, Detroit, Munich, Stockholm, Seoul, and Tokyo.
Verdant Robotics
Verdant Robotics is a Silicon Valley company that provides autonomous farming services. They have raised $58M to date. Their robots use AI and robotics to digitally map entire farms and track and treat each plant. Their technology can apply inputs with laser precision down to the millimeter level.
Verdant Robotics was founded in 2018 by Gabe Sibley, a technologist and roboticist. Their first robots focused on automated chemical spraying and apple thinning. Their multi-crop platform can also provide weeding, targeted thinning, protectant, and nutrient delivery.
Lawrence Ibarria worked at Nvidia for 9 years and that led to him joining as a co-founder and CTO at Verdant Robotics. He's also part of the Cruise Mafia, previously working as director of simulation at Cruise Automation.
Rising Stars we’re excited about:
Upduo
Upduo is a social learning and engagement platform that helps employees reach their potential. The platform creates collaborative learning experiences by connecting employees for one-on-one conversations. Upduo uses one-on-one video conferencing with on-screen prompts and interactive features.
Mike Mendelson worked at NVIDIA as an Education Product Manager for 3 years, which led to a natural inclination towards co-founding and becoming a Chief Education Officer at Upduo.
Full list of all the incredible members of the Nvidia Mafia
Companies covered:
- Alcatraz AI
- Expedera
- Prophecy.io
- Pixie
- Jerry
- MobiKwik
- Nexla
- Aviz Networks
- Osmo
- Voltron Data
- Verdant Robotics
- Tachyum
- FiveAI
- Tonic.ai
- rct AI
- Seaplane IO
- Wonder Workshop
- Cygni Energy
- Ayar Labs
- Basemark
- Mperativ
- Redbeacon
- Memoir Systems
- QC Ware
- echo3D
- Clockwork
- Infinitus Systems
- Applied Intuition
- Skipify
- BusRight
- Mezmo
- Fortanix
- DroneDeploy
- Bouncer
- Knowlarity Communications
- Better
- Upduo
- Hippocratic AI
- Polimorphic
- Raise Robotics
- Ferveret
- Signadot
- LightUp
- Airwork
- Smith.ai
- Binarly
- Edge
Alcatraz AI
Founder: Vince Gaydarzhiev
NVIDIA Role: Hardware System Engineer
Capital Raised: $44.9M
Investors: HCVC
Stage: Series A
Alcatraz revolutionizes access control with the AI-powered Rock. It ensures secure, frictionless entry, detecting tailgating and controlling access in real-time for safer buildings.
Expedera
Founder: Da Chuang
NVIDIA Role: DMP Architect
Capital Raised: $18M
Investors: Weili Dai
Stage: Series A
Expedera is a provider of scalable neural engine semiconductor IP.
Prophecy.io
Founder: Raj Bains
NVIDIA Role: Senior Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $38.5M
Investors: SignalFire
Stage: Series A
Prophecy.io is a cloud native data engineering product built on Spark & Kubernetes.
Pixie
Founder: Zain Asgar
NVIDIA Role: Sr. Engineer (Software for GPU power infrastructure)
Capital Raised: $9.2M
Investors: Benchmark Capital
Stage: Series A
Pixie Labs builds machine intelligence systems which empower developers to engineer the future.
Jerry
Founder: Musawir Shah
NVIDIA Role: Sr. Software Engineer - Tegra
Capital Raised: $261M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Series C
Jerry is a software service that helps the owners of car handle insurance, financing, repairs, maintenance, and safety.
MobiKwik
Founder: Bipin Preet Singh
NVIDIA Role: Platform Architect
Capital Raised: $177.4M
Investors: Cisco Investments
Stage: Series G
MobiKwik is a financial services company that provides a fintech platform designed for online payments, life insurance, and loans.
Nexla
Founder: Saket Saurabh
NVIDIA Role: Software Product Manager
Capital Raised: $33.5M
Investors: Blumberg Capital
Stage: Series B
Nexla provides automation to integrate, transform, and monitor data for various use cases.
Saket Saurabh, co-founder and CEO at Nexla, is a successful data entrepreneur known for his business-tech leadership.
Aviz Networks
Founder: Vishal Shukla
NVIDIA Role: Director - Product Management & Technical Sales
Capital Raised: $4M
Investors: Moment Ventures
Stage: Seed
Aviz Networks enables sonic deployments in Data Center & Edge Networks with platform-agnostic applications.
Osmo
Founder: Pramod Sharma
NVIDIA Role: Senior Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $32.5M
Investors: Upfront Ventures
Stage: Series B
Osmo is an interactive play company bringing harmony between physical and digital.
Voltron Data
Founder: Joshua Patterson, Keith Kraus
NVIDIA Role: Senior Director RAPIDS, AI Infrastracture Senior Manager
Capital Raised: $110M
Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners
Stage: Series A
Voltron Data develops high-performance data access and in-memory computing tools to improve the existing data analytics ecosystem.
Verdant Robotics
Founder: Lawrence Ibarria
NVIDIA Role: Senior Software Manager - Automotive
Capital Raised: $58M
Investors: Cleveland Avenue
Stage: Series A
Verdant Robotics manufactures robotics systems; the company's current platform delivers transformative agricultural services.
Tachyum
Founder: Rado Danilak
NVIDIA Role: Sr Architect
Capital Raised: $70.5M
Investors: IPM Group
Stage: Series B
Tachyum transforms AI, HPC, and cloud workloads with Prodigy, a versatile universal processor for high-performance and efficient computing.
FiveAI
Founder: Simon Walker, Stan Boland
NVIDIA Role: Technical Director, SVP Mobile Communications
Capital Raised: $78.7M
Investors: Lakestar
Stage: Series B
FiveAI provides a software platform designed for providing a solution in urban mobility in public transport to complex urban environments.
Tonic.ai
Founder: Andrew Colombi
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $45M
Investors: Bloomberg Beta
Stage: Series B
Tonic provides production data to create safe, useful, de-identified data for QA, testing, and development.
rct AI
Founder: Yan Zhang
NVIDIA Role: Senior Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $25.7M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Series A
rct AI is building Metaverse with AI on blockchain. Backed by Galaxy Interactive, Makers Fund, Skysaga Capital, Y Combinator (W19) and other outstanding investors, rct AI is providing AI solutions to gaming companies and developing crypto games.
Seaplane IO
Founder: Suneil Mishra
NVIDIA Role: Director of Marketing
Capital Raised: $17M
Investors: Sequoia Capital
Stage: Series A
Seaplane is a global platform for building and scaling apps.
Suneil Mishra, a tech advocate and investor, co-founded Seaplane.IO. He is passionate about AI, smart cities, and e-health, supporting startups and fundraising for transformative tech.
Wonder Workshop
Founder: Saurabh Gupta
NVIDIA Role: Senior Systems Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $80.8M
Investors: CRV
Stage: Tencent
Wonder Workshop provides a platform that makes programming fun and accessible for children while they play.
Saurabh Gupta, an entrepreneur, inventor, and engineering leader, has led product development for successful consumer products like robots at Wonder Workshop and iPods at Apple. He's created and managed high-performing teams across various disciplines.
Cygni Energy
Founder: Venkat Rajaraman
NVIDIA Role: Director - Engineering
Capital Raised: $21.6M
Investors: RTBI
Stage: Series B
Cygni Energy is a manufacturer of energy storage devices for commercial and institutional customers.
Ayar Labs
Founder: Chen Sun
NVIDIA Role: ASIC Design Intern
Capital Raised: $219.7M
Investors: Founders Fund
Stage: Series C
Ayar Labs develops an optical I/O solution for applications that require high bandwidth and low latency using light to move data.
Basemark
Founder: Arto Ruotsalainen
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $11.3M
Investors: ETF Partners
Stage: Series A
Basemark deals with graphics benchmarking, computer graphics and GPU compute acceleration as well as real-time rendering.
Mperativ
Founder: Jim McHugh
NVIDIA Role: Vice President and General Manager AI Systems
Capital Raised: $5M
Investors: WestWave Capital
Stage: Series A
Mperativ designs and develops marketing software solutions with a focus to increase the revenue of organizations via the platform.
Redbeacon
Founder: Aaron Lee
NVIDIA Role: Graphics Consultant
Capital Raised: $7.4M
Investors: Mayfield Fund
Stage: Series A
Redbeacon allows consumers who need a service performed to find and interact with local businesses and professionals.
Memoir Systems
Founder: Da Chuang
NVIDIA Role: DMP Architect
Capital Raised: $5.1M
Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners
Stage: Series A
Memoir is a seed-stage startup specializing in scaling memory performance through an application-independent solution.
QC Ware
Founder: Tayo Oguntebi
NVIDIA Role: Hardware Engineer
Capital Raised: $41.4M
Investors: Goldman Sachs
Stage: Series A
QC Ware develops hardware-agnostic enterprise software solutions for quantum computers.
Tayo Oguntebi, Software Engineer and founder of QC Ware, is a systems architect with a passion for hardware/software tradeoffs. He's keenly interested in the potential of technology to enhance global education and healthcare.
echo3D
Founder: Alon Grinshpoon
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $10.5M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Series A
A 3D asset management platform that enables developers to manage, update, and stream 3D content to real-time 3D/AR/VR apps and games.
Clockwork
Founder: Renuka Apte
NVIDIA Role: Senior Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $8.5M
Investors: Initialized
Stage: Seed
Clockwork is building AI-powered robots to deliver express beauty services for people on the go. They started with nails, and have developed the world’s first fully autonomous manicure robot, which can paint nails perfectly.
Infinitus Systems
Founder: Shyam Rajagopalan
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer / Tech Lead
Capital Raised: $51.4M
Investors: Coatue Management
Stage: Series B
Infinitus is a startup that develops voice robotic process automation tools for the health care industry.
Applied Intuition
Founder: Peter Ludwig
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer Intern
Capital Raised: $351.5M
Investors: Lux Capital
Stage: Series D
Applied Intuition provides software infrastructure to safely develop, test, and deploy autonomous vehicles at scale.
Skipify
Founder: Jeremy Anderson
NVIDIA Role: Head of PSG Channel Sales - Americas
Capital Raised: $46.1M
Investors: PayPal Ventures
Stage: Series B
Skipify eliminates friction in the shopper’s journey and helps merchants and shoppers build even stronger relationships.
BusRight
Founder: Chris Fischer
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineering Intern
Capital Raised: $9.5M
Investors: Underscore VC
Stage: Series A
BusRight operates a school-bus tracking application that is intended to improve student safety.
Mezmo
Founder: Lee Liu
NVIDIA Role: Web Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $108.4M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Series D
Mezmo, formerly LogDNA, is an observability platform to manage and take action on your data.
Fortanix
Founder: Ambuj Kumar
NVIDIA Role: Hardware design lead
Capital Raised: $135.3M
Investors: Foundation Capital
Stage: Series C
Fortanix is the data-first multicloud security company with its mission to solve cloud security and privacy. Data is the most precious digital asset of businesses, but this data is spread across clouds, SaaS, applications, databases, and storage systems.
DroneDeploy
Founder: Nicholas Pilkington
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $142.6M
Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners
Stage: Series F
DroneDeploy is a cloud-based drone mapping and analytics platform to help businesses get things done.
Bouncer
Founder: Steven Liu
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer Intern
Capital Raised: $35.2M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Seed
Bouncer is an innovative fraud prevention technology company that built some of the highest performing machine learning counter-fraud tech.
Knowlarity Communications
Founder: Pallav Pandey
NVIDIA Role: ASIC Design Engineer
Capital Raised: $42.5M
Investors: Mayfield Fund
Stage: Series C
Knowlarity, an Indian Cloud Telephony pioneer, caters to SMEs and large enterprises across emerging markets. They've raised substantial investments, streamlined operations, and achieved a $3M recurring revenue run-rate with a 175-member team.
Rising Stars
Better
Founder: John Stockdale
NVIDIA Role: Hardware Quality Assurance Intern
Capital Raised: $1.1M
Investors: Initialized
Stage: Seed
Better advocates on its users' behalf to reduce their medical bills.
John Stockdale, founder of Better, is a technology enthusiast and engineer dedicated to using his skills for good. His specialties include electrical engineering, embedded systems, software engineering, and more, all aimed at creating positive impacts.
Upduo
Founder: Mike Mendelson
NVIDIA Role: Education Product Manager
Capital Raised: $4M
Investors: Impact Venture Capital
Stage: Seed
Upduo helps companies deliver engaging 1:1 coaching sessions at scale that drive measurable business outcomes.
Hippocratic AI
Founder: Saad Godil
NVIDIA Role: Director of Applied Deep Learning Research
Capital Raised: $65M
Investors: General Catalyst
Stage: Seed
Hippocratic AI develops safety-focused large language models with a focus on non-diagnostic, patient-facing applications.
Saad Godil is the co-founder and CTO at Hippocratic AI, specializing in Generative AI for healthcare safety.
Polimorphic
Founder: Parth Shah
NVIDIA Role: Deep Learning
Capital Raised: $3.8M
Investors: Pear Ventures
Stage: Seed
Polimorphic is a software company that builds and develops operating systems for local and state governments.
Raise Robotics
Founder: Gary Chen
NVIDIA Role: Autonomous Vehicles Intern
Capital Raised: $2.5M
Investors: Union Labs Ventures
Stage: Pre-Seed
Raise Robotics equips contractors with an extra set of hands. We help our customers build better by ensuring high-quality construction and creating safer job sites. With our machines, it’s easy, safe, and fast to get great results.
Ferveret
Founder: Reza Azizian
NVIDIA Role: Senior Packaging Thermal Engineer
Capital Raised: $2.2M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Seed
Ferveret revolutionizes data center cooling with nuclear power plant-inspired liquid cooling tech. Achieving 96% cost savings, 68% capital cost reduction, and a 40% carbon footprint reduction, it boosts chip performance by 2X.
Signadot
Founder: Anirudh Ramanathan
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $4.2M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Seed
Signadot is a Kubernetes-native platform accelerating microservices development with rapid feedback and testing in production.
LightUp
Founder: Tarun Pondicherry
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $1.6M
Investors: HAX
Stage: Seed
LightUp is a mobile-based augmented learning platform. It creates educational labs that use augmented reality to engage students in ways they have never been engaged before.
Airwork
Founder: Gary Lin
NVIDIA Role: Software Engineer Intern
Capital Raised: $1.5M
Investors: Y Combinator
Stage: Pre-Seed
Airwork bridges Canada's labor gap, connecting top hourly workers with local businesses in the Greater Toronto Area across various industries.
Smith.ai
Founder: Aaron Lee
NVIDIA Role: Graphics Consultant
Capital Raised: $7M
Investors: SignalFire
Stage: Seed
A virtual receptionist and intake service for solo and small law firms. U.S.-based professionals handle calls, chats, client screening, appointments, and payments. They offer 30+ software integrations, including Zapier for limitless workflows.
Binarly
Founder: Alex Matrosov
NVIDIA Role: Chief Offensive Security Researcher
Capital Raised: $3.6M
Investors: WestWave Capital
Stage: Seed
Binarly is the only proven solution that uses patented AI/ML to identify firmware vulnerabilities and risks at the binary level.
Edge
Founder: Paul Puey
NVIDIA Role: 3D Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $2.5M
Investors: Bitmex
Stage: Seed
Edge is a complete self custody solution that allows users to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies.
Join our waitlist
Love what we do?
Give us a follow on:
Twitter
