Stealth Startup Spy #175
Ex-CRO at Brex is now CEO of a stealth startup, Twitch alum and Harvard CS grad joins YC's F24 batch, & Co-founders of Latch (NASDAQ: LTCH) debut a defense tech firm
Stealth Startup Spy is a data-driven newsletter for investors, journalists and tech enthusiasts interested in uncovering the next big move for key talent, real-time stealth company launches and technology advancements not in plain sight. We leverage the technology built at Gravity to track billions of data points to help you identify tomorrow's opportunities that are currently hiding in the shadows. These signals include tracking the inflows and outflows of talent who work at “Stealth Startups”, bios and profile changes to “building something new” and monitoring press releases to shine a light on the hidden world of stealth startups.
In this issue of the Stealth Startup Spy, here is what we will uncover:
Ex-CRO at Brex is now the co-founder and CEO of a stealth startup
Co-Founders of Latch (NASDAQ: LTCH) debut a defense technlogy company to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base
Former Product VP at Visa and Payments CEO at Google launches an AI company focused on building trust and transparency in digital content
Harvard CS and former ML expert at Twitch and Amazon joins Y Combinator’s F24 batch
Former B2B Growth Lead at Alibaba is building something new in stealth mode
And more…
Now let’s shine the spotlight… 💡💡💡
🕵️♂️Founders Coming Out of Stealth
Real-time updates from founders who debut what they’ve been working on under stealth mode
Dhruva Rajendra - CEO & Co-Founder at Deterrence
🔎Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartupSpy#135
FounderDNA: Serial Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder at Latch (NASDAQ: LTCH), ex-Founder at Fast Rope Labs, ex-Head of Product at Main Street Genome
Connect on: LinkedIn
Deterrence is building advanced autonomous manufacturing systems for critical energetic components — to deter global conflict by bolstering America's defense capabilities.
HQ: United States
Industry: Defense and Space Manufacturing | Team Size: 6
Co-Founders: Henry Olgers (ex-Tesla) , Brian Jones (Co-Founder & ex-CTO at Latch)
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 10 months
Nikolay Dakov - Co-Founder at Acclara AI
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree
Prior Experience: Ex-Investment Associate at Outlier Ventures, ex-Software Developer at Goldman Sachs
Connect on: LinkedIn
Acclara is a complete technical accounting platform for research, modelling and reporting of business transactions.
HQ: United Kingdom
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 15 months
Daniel Molano - Co-Founde & CEO at Edgen AI
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: Raised $44M+ USD for tech startups, funds and nonprofits. Co-founded 7 AI and automation companies, including a nonprofit. Achieved four exits: Defilanthropy.org, Autodita Labs, MiCampaña.com, and Virket Group
Connect on: LinkedIn
Edgen AI is building custom, proprietary, hyperspecialized Generative AI foundation models, infrastructure and use cases.
HQ: Silicon Valley, California, United States
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet | Team Size: 9
Co-Founders: Andres Noero , Gabriel Kent
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 13 months
Brendan Marry - Co-Founder & CEO at Aurigin
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Product Director at Flutter, ex-Head of Product Management at Google (10 years), ex-CEO of Google Payments, ex-VP Head of Product Management at Visa Europe
Connect on: LinkedIn
Aurigin is developing groundbreaking technology to make AI more accountable—from protecting content creators and celebrities from AI-driven impersonation to detecting misinformation and verifying digital content.
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 months
Jialiang Zhou - Founder at Cekura (YC F24)
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-Co-Founder, CTO at Sift, ex-Deep Learning Teaching Assistant at Brown University
Connect on: LinkedIn
Cekura (YC F24) connects LLM applications to enterprise data sources along with the permission data in realtime.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Software Development | Team Size: 2
Co-Founder: Tianyi Shao
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
Sam Blond - Co-Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder
Prior Experience: Ex-CRO at Brex, ex-VP Sales at Zenefits, ex-Director of Sales at EchoSign
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Miami, Florida, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 months
Munimur Ashrafy - Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Ex-Visual & UX Designer - AI/Google Research Hub at Google, ex-Senior Product Designer at Sam's Club, ex-Lead UI/UX Designer at Realty ONE Group, ex-Senior Product Designer, Mobile at Next Insurance
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 22 months
Katerina Petraki - Co-Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Head of New Business and Growth at Alibaba Group, ex-Director of Business Development at OpenSky Inc. (acq by Alibaba Group), ex-Manager, Strategy Consulting at Deloitte, ex-Strategy & Operations at Thomson Reuters
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 months
Donald Kendrick - Co-Founder & CTO at Stealth Mode Clean Tech Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Chief Technology Officer at Ekona Power, ex-CTO at ClearSign Technologies (NASDAQ: CLIR), Caltech PhD
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Europe
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 month
Essam Sleiman - Founder at YC F24
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Ex-Applied Research Scientist, Deep Learning at Twitch, ex-Software Engineer (Machine Learning) at Amazon Web Services, CS at Harvard
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 month
Stay Stealthy,
Drake
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