Metal was founded by Usman Gul in 2024.

Who are Metal's investors?

Metal's investors include Gaingels, Indus Valley Capital, Phaze Ventures, Pioneer, Y Combinator, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, B Capital and 8 more.

How much funding has Metal raised?

Metal has disclosed $129.5M raised across 2 of its 4 known rounds.

Where is Metal headquartered?

Metal is headquartered in Lahore, PK.

Metal

YC W23

Lahore, PK · Founded 2024 · 21 employees · 17 known investors

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Metal is a platform that uses proprietary intelligence to identify and rank investors aligned with a company's fundraising round and investment thesis. The service helps companies define their profile and discover relevant investor prospects.

Also known as Apollo13 Technologies Inc. · Apollo13 Technologies Inc., APOLLO13 GROUP PTE. LTD. · Apollo Group · Pluto Technologies · Pluto Technologies, Apollo Group

AI & Machine Learning Enterprise Software Fintech SaaS B2B Investing Investments FundraisingPakistanSouth Asia

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W23)

Metal was founded in 2024 by Usman Gul.

Usman Gul Founder/CEOUsman Gul was an early employee at DoorDash and Marqeta, and previously founded a startup that raised $120 million across six funding rounds. He is now building Metal.

James O'Dwyer Founder

Sergio Prada Founder

Taylor Lowe Founder

Sameer NusratManager

Investors · 17

Gaingelslisted by GaingelsNew York · $200K – $500K

How we know: gaingels.com · Not right? Tell us

Indus Valley Capitallisted by Indus Valley CapitalKarachivia Aatif Awan · inferred

How we know: the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us

Phaze Ventureslisted by Phaze VenturesMuscat

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Pioneerlisted by PioneerToronto, Ontario

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · pioneerfund.vc · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Y Combinatorlisted by Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K

How we know: the Y Combinator directory · press coverage · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

AccelreportedPalo Alto · $500K – $100M

How we know: funding news · cnbc.com · Not right? Tell us

Andreessen HorowitzreportedMenlo Park · $500K – $50M

How we know: press coverage · Not right? Tell us

B Capitalreported

How we know: wired.com · Not right? Tell us

Base10 PartnersreportedSan Francisco · $100K – $5M

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Bosch VenturesreportedStuttgart · $1.6M

How we know: cnbc.com · Not right? Tell us

J2 VenturesreportedBoston

How we know: cnbc.com · Not right? Tell us

Maiora Rebel Venturesreported

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Rebel FundreportedSan Francisco · $100K – $5M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Salesforce VenturesreportedSan Francisco · $5M – $50M

How we know: wired.com · Not right? Tell us

Shield CapitalreportedSan Francisco

How we know: cnbc.com · Not right? Tell us

Swift VenturesreportedSan Francisco

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Also in the syndicate · 1

RTX Ventures

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$129.5M disclosed across 2 of 4 rounds · 2025–2026

$4.5MSeedSep 2026 · 4 sources
Source ↗
$125MSeries BFeb 2026 · 2 sources
Salesforce Ventures (lead), Accel, B Capital, J2 Ventures
Source ↗

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

Founder mafia

4 people who came through Metal went on to found or lead other companies.

Taylor LoweFounderFounded Metal James O'DwyerFounderFounded Metal Sergio PradaFounderFounded Metal Arman AssadiAdvisorFounded Steno

Related companies · 8

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InferEdgeInferEdge builds agentic AI infrastructure for investment teams to automate time-consuming tasks like information triage and summarization. The platform is designed to free up analyst judgment and decision-making by handling routine analysis work.

EqvistaEqvista provides software for equity management, cap table administration, and valuations for private companies. The platform enables structured tender offers that give employees and investors liquidity while maintaining company control over participation, pricing, and cap table integrity.

ProSightsProSights provides data transformation and AI-readiness services for enterprise workflows, turning complex business data into structured, actionable formats. The company serves finance professionals, data scientists, and alternative asset managers through custom data migration, document ingestion, and reconciliation solutions.

GetlatkaGetLatka provides CEO-confirmed revenue, growth, and valuation data for thousands of private SaaS companies, sourced from Nathan Latka's on-camera founder interviews. It serves founders, researchers, and marketers looking for benchmarking and revenue data.

KimptonKimpton is an AI-powered research platform for portfolio managers and investment professionals that automates financial research and analysis tasks. The platform consolidates data, runs analysis, and surfaces investment recommendations while keeping human decision-making at the center, serving buy-side professionals including hedge funds and institutional investors.

Companies working in the same space as Metal.

Legal entities · 2

corporate structure

Apollo13 Technologies Inc.

Apollo13 Technologies Inc., APOLLO13 GROUP PTE. LTD.

In the news

Metal Raises $4.5M Seedthesaasnews.com · Sep 2026

Frequently asked questions

What does Metal do?: Metal is a platform that uses proprietary intelligence to identify and rank investors aligned with a company's fundraising round and investment thesis. The service helps companies define their profile and discover relevant investor prospects.
Who founded Metal?: Metal was founded by Usman Gul in 2024.
Who are Metal's investors?: Metal's investors include Gaingels, Indus Valley Capital, Phaze Ventures, Pioneer, Y Combinator, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, B Capital and 8 more.
How much funding has Metal raised?: Metal has disclosed $129.5M raised across 2 of its 4 known rounds.
Where is Metal headquartered?: Metal is headquartered in Lahore, PK.