Cactus Compute
YC S25San Francisco, US · Founded 2025 · 8 employees · 6 known investors
Cactus Compute provides an on-device AI runtime for speech, vision, and text models that automatically routes between on-device and cloud inference based on complexity and audio quality. The platform enables developers to deploy speech transcription, voice assistants, and LLM applications across mobile, desktop, and wearable devices with privacy-first architecture.
Also known as Cactus
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareArtificial IntelligenceHard TechOpen SourceAIUnited States of AmericaAmerica / CanadaPartly Remote
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S25)
Cactus Compute was founded in 2025 by Roman Shemet and Henry Ndubuaku.
RS
Roman Shemetin𝕏Founder, CEORoman Shemet has worked as a quantitative analyst and economist with background in product and data engineering. He is currently working on mobile inference at Cactus.
HN
Henry Ndubuakuin𝕏Founder & CTOHenry Ndubuaku previously held a position in AI/ML at Nvidia before founding Cactus.
Investors · 6
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$7M disclosed across 1 round · 2025
- $7MSeedNov 2025 · 2 sources
Wellington Management (lead), Y Combinator (lead), Pelion Venture Partners, Rebel Fund
Source ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
The YC application· Summer 2025 batch
Alumni Q&A
- How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)
- The founders met through YC's co-founder matching in London four years ago.
Summarized from the founders' answers on their Y Combinator profile.
Images
Competitors · 4
by search overlap
Hugging Face17 shared keywordsHugging Face is a collaboration platform that hosts and provides access to machine learning models, datasets, and applications. It offers both open-source tools for the ML community and paid compute and enterprise solutions for teams building AI applications.
Caktus12 shared keywordsCaktus AI is an AI-powered academic platform for students, offering 25+ specialized tools including an essay writer with academic citations, a step-by-step math solver, a text humanizer, research and citation finder, and a flashcard/quiz maker. It serves students across subjects, providing subscription-based study aids for writing, math, science, and study material generation.
Aktus AI's9 shared keywordsAktus deploys AI workers that ingest financial documents and run calculations through a deterministic code layer to produce audit-traceable outputs like waterfalls, K-1s, NAV, and capital accounts. It serves private equity, VC, hedge funds, fund administrators, real asset managers, CPA/tax teams, OCIOs, and insurance carriers with alternative portfolios.
Cactus8 shared keywordsCactus automates lead response and customer re-engagement for home service businesses, ensuring calls are answered within 60 seconds and dormant CRM contacts are converted into repeat bookings.
Companies competing with Cactus Compute for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Bike MS: Cactus and Crude event this weekend raises funds for multiple sclerosis researchkcbd.com · Jul 2026Frequently asked questions
- What does Cactus Compute do?
- Cactus Compute provides an on-device AI runtime for speech, vision, and text models that automatically routes between on-device and cloud inference based on complexity and audio quality. The platform enables developers to deploy speech transcription, voice assistants, and LLM applications across mobile, desktop, and wearable devices with privacy-first architecture.
- Who founded Cactus Compute?
- Cactus Compute was founded by Roman Shemet, Henry Ndubuaku in 2025.
- Who are Cactus Compute's investors?
- Cactus Compute's investors include Antigravity Capital, Transpose Platform Management, Y Combinator, Pelion Venture Partners, Rebel Fund, Wellington Management.
- How much funding has Cactus Compute raised?
- Cactus Compute has disclosed $7M raised across 1 round.
- Where is Cactus Compute headquartered?
- Cactus Compute is headquartered in San Francisco, US.