Stealth Startup Spy #352
Ex-Tesla engineer raises $70M to build robot foundation model infra, Rogo founding engineer builds BI platform for college athletics, & Ex-Huawei AI hardware scientist enters stealth
🚀 We just launched a new newsletter — Company Launch Tracker.
We’re tracking company launches as they happen and surfacing the most interesting new founders and startups (yes, all outside of this stealth activity too). If you want to stay ahead of the curve, this is where you’ll find them first.
Right now we’ve got 5 subscribers: my wife, my mom, and that high school buddy who won’t stop pitching me his app. Be smart like them and get in early 👇
We run a live feed inside Gravity that tracks founders entering stealth and companies quietly exiting it.
What you’re reading here is about 1% of the stealth activity we pick up. The full tracker updates in real time as things change and new activity emerges.
If you want earlier access to everything, book some time with us to stay ahead.
In this issue of the Stealth Startup Spy, here is what we will uncover:
Ex-Google Labs Frontier AI product lead enters stealth
Former Tesla vehicle engineer exits stealth with $70M to build core infrastructure for robot foundation models
Former Google, Apple, and AWS generative AI product leader enters stealth
Founding engineer at Rogo ($2B-valued fintech) is building a business intelligence platform for college athletics
PhD researcher and former Huawei AI hardware scientist enters stealth
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
Joseph Mccombs - CTO / Co-Founder at Benchmark AI
FounderDNA: Technical Founder
Prior Experience: Founding Engineer at Rogo, Senior Software Engineer at Puente Desarrollo Internacional, Data Engineer at Aunalytics
Benchmark AI is a business intelligence platform built for college athletics, aggregating and structuring operational and financial data from athletic departments so administrators can benchmark against peers.
HQ: South Bend-Mishawaka Region, Indiana, United States
Industry: Sports Tech, Business Intelligence | Team Size: 3
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Year 2 Months
Omer Kirnap - Founder at Verapulse
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Applied Scientist at Amazon, Data Scientist at VNGRS
Connect on: LinkedIn
Verapulse builds the intelligence layer for embodied AI, developing efficient models that run real-time control directly on a robot’s existing hardware.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Robotics AI, Embodied AI | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 Months
Dennis Ren - CEO, Co-Founder at Neuron Industries
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Hardware Design Engineer (Vision Pro) at Apple, Hardware Development Engineer Intern (Amazon Go) at Amazon Lab126, Engineering Manager, Electrical Engineering & Special Projects at Freeform
Connect on: LinkedIn
Neuron Industries builds industrial control systems that pair rugged hardware with modern software, engineered together as a single platform for the machines and processes behind manufacturing. The company is replacing today’s fragmented, multi-vendor automation stack with one unified system.
HQ: El Segundo, California, United States
Industry: Industrial Automation, Robotics Hardware | Team Size: 2
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 Months
Nicholas Wettels - Chief Executive Officer at Sensate Robotics
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree
Prior Experience: CEO at Perception Robotics, COO at SynTouch, Post-Doctoral Researcher at NASA, Director of R&D at OnRobot, PhD of Biomedical Engineering at University of Southern California
Connect on: LinkedIn
Sensate Robotics is building the sense of touch for robots, applying tactile sensing across produce handling, aerospace, defense, and manufacturing.
HQ: Los Angeles, California, United States
Industry: Robotics, Sensor Technology | Team Size: 4
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Year
Nemo Jin - Co-Founder and COO at XDOF
🔎 Featured Founder under stealth mode 91 weeks ago
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Head of Vehicle Engineering - Founding Engineer at Revoy, Senior Engineer - Vehicle Engineering at Tesla
XDOF builds the infrastructure, tools, and data services that robotics companies use to accelerate physical AI development.
HQ: Berkeley, California, United States
Industry: Robotics Infrastructure, Physical AI | Team Size: 60
Latest Funding: $70M Seed Round on 6/17/2026
Key Investors: Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, Lux, WndrCo
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Year 9 Months
🕵️♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth
Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode
Sean Perry - Co-Founder at Stealth
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Superintelligence Labs at Meta, Head of Data Science - Data Engineering & Analytics at Peaksware Holdings, Data Engineering / Platform at Brightside Health
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Month
Ruhaab Markas - Co-Founder & CEO at Stealth AI Startup
FounderDNA: Masters Degree, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Group Product Manager - Generative AI / Agents at Google, Sr. Product Manager (Siri) - Machine Learning / NLP at Apple, Head of Product -Generative AI (Amazon Bedrock & Lex) at AWS, Director of Product Management, Conversational AI at Salesforce
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Austin, Texas, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 6 Months
Nick S. - Founder at Stealth AI Startup
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Product Lead - Frontier AI / Google Labs at Google, Lead Product Manager - Brex Cash at Brex, Head of Product at Home Captain, Director of Product - Argo Digital at Argo Group
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Month
Bruno Lerner - Founder at Stealth Startup
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Former FAANG
Prior Experience: Chief Technology Officer at Meetal, Lead Data Scientist at Nubank, Data Scientist - Waze at Google, Head of Artificial Intelligence at Dattos, Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Outbrain
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Month
Maxence Bouvier - Founder at Stealth
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree
Prior Experience: AI & Hardware Research Scientist at Huawei, System-on-Chip Design Engineer at STMicroelectronics, Doctor of Computer Science - PhD at Université Grenoble Alpes, MEng at EPFL
Connect on: LinkedIn
HQ: France
Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Month
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Stay Stealthy,
Drake
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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 shine a light on the hidden world of stealth startups.