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Leon Yao

Founder

Founder at Whitespace

United States

FoundedWhitespace · YC

Find your path to Leon

10,209 people in our graph share verified history with Leon — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Glenn VogelunlockedLeon: together at Whitespace (2025–2026)
×2Leon: together at Whitespace
Leon: together at YC S26
×4Leon: together at The University of Manchester

About

Leon Yao is the founder of Whitespace. He previously worked as a Research Engineer at Instadeep on reinforcement learning for optimization problems, and held the CTO role at Test and Tutor. He holds an MSc in Machine Learning and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from UCL.

Founder at WhitespaceYC S26

Intro paths

YC

Leon went through Y Combinator (Summer 2026) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.

GP

Their group partner at YC was Jon Xu, General Partner at Y Combinator — the partner who ran Whitespace's batch and knows the company first-hand. YC profile ↗

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In turn, Leon can intro founders to Whitespace's investors below.

Whitespace's investors · 4

Caffeinated CapitalSan Francisco · $3M – $50M checks · since 2026MaC Venture CapitalLos Angeles · $500K – $2M checks · since 2026Vela PartnersSan Francisco · $100K – $500K checksY CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K checks · since 2026

Co-founders at Whitespace

ATAlex Tung
Alex TungFounder

Experience

  1. Whitespace (YC S26)Co-Founder & CTOcurrent2025 — present
  2. InstaDeepResearch Engineer2024 — 2026
  3. University College LondonResearch Assistant2022 — 2023
  4. Test & TutorCo-Founder2021 — 2022
  5. The University of ManchesterResearch Developer2020 — 2021
  6. Independent Product Designer2019 — 2021

Skills & more

PyTorch1TensorFlow2Amazon Web Services (AWS)1Python (Programming Language)3React.jsJavaScript2Matlab2Adobe InDesign2Adobe Illustrator2HTML51Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)1CATIA1
+7 moreDeep LearningPhysics SimulationObject DetectionReinforcement LearningWeb DevelopmentMarket AnalysisROI projection
  • TensorFlow for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning — DeepLearning.AI
  • Convolutional Neural Networks in TensorFlow — DeepLearning.AI
  • Introduction to Machine Learning in Production — DeepLearning.AI

From Leon's professional profile.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Leon Yao?
Leon Yao is the founder of Whitespace. He previously worked as a Research Engineer at Instadeep on reinforcement learning for optimization problems, and held the CTO role at Test and Tutor. He holds an MSc in Machine Learning and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from UCL.
Where does Leon Yao work?
Leon Yao is Founder of Whitespace.
What companies did Leon Yao found?
Leon Yao founded Whitespace.
Where did Leon Yao go to school?
Leon Yao studied at Y Combinator (S26); UCL (Master of Science - MSc, Machine Learning); UCL (Bachelor of Engineering - BEng, Engineering).

Founder mafias

Same school

Shared employers

Also worked at Whitespace (YC S26)1

Alex TungFounder at Whitespace