Raman Varma
InvestorFounderBuild Accelerator Founder at Foundation Capital · Founder at Kestrel AI · Founder at Kestrel
Berkeley, California, United States
FoundedKestrelKestrel AI · YC
Find your path to Raman
347 people in our graph share verified history with Raman — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Arhaan A.unlockedRaman: together at UC Berkeley Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society (2022)
×2Raman: together at Coursera
Raman: together at Berkeley RISE Lab
×4Raman: together at Foundation Capital
About
Raman Varma is a computer science graduate from UC Berkeley with machine learning experience at Sky Computing, BAIR labs, Square, and Coursera, plus prior software engineering roles at Illumio. He is now co-founder and CEO of Kestrel AI, which develops AI agents for platform engineering teams.
Founder at Kestrel AIYC F25
Intro paths
YC
Raman went through Y Combinator (Fall 2025) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.
GP
Their group partner at YC was Pete Koomen, General Partner at Y Combinator — the partner who ran Kestrel AI's batch and knows the company first-hand. YC profile ↗
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In turn, Raman can intro founders to Kestrel AI's investors below.
Kestrel AI's investors · 1
Founder at Kestrel
Intro paths
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In turn, Raman can intro founders to Kestrel's investors below.
Experience
- Kestrel AI (YC F25)Co-founder & CEOcurrent2025 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
- Foundation CapitalBuild Accelerator Foundercurrent2025 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
- IllumioSoftware Engineer II2025Sunnyvale, California, United States
- IllumioSoftware Engineer2024Sunnyvale, California, United States
- Berkeley RISE LabMachine Learning Researcher2024Berkeley, California, United States
- CourseraMachine Learning Engineer2023San Francisco Bay Area
- IllumioSoftware Engineer2023Sunnyvale, California, United States
- SquareMachine Learning Engineer2023San Francisco Bay Area
- Computer Science MentorsSenior Mentor (CS 61A)2022 — 2023Berkeley, California, United States
- Computer Science MentorsAssociate Mentor (CS 61A)2022Berkeley, California, United States
- Computer Science MentorsJunior Mentor (CS 61A)2021Berkeley, California, United States
- UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS)Course Staff (CS 61A)2022 — 2023Berkeley, California, United States
- UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS)Academic Intern (CS 61A)2022Berkeley, California, United States
- UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS)Security Researcher2022Berkeley, California, United States
- UC Berkeley Division of Computing, Data Science, and SocietyCourse Staff (Data 8)2022Berkeley, California, United States
Skills & more
Go1C++1Kubernetes1IstioCiliumKafka StreamsApache IcebergJavaApache CassandraNeo4jPythonPyTorch
+12 more
Apache KafkaDistributed SystemsgRPCScalaDeep LearningNLPLLMsVector DatabasesSQLRedisParallel ProgrammingContainer OrchestrationLanguages English · Russian
From Raman's professional profile.
Colleagues at Foundation Capital
Alejandra Martinez
Partner at Foundation Capital
Alyssa Spagnolo
Associate at OMERS Ventures
Angus Davis
General Partner at Foundation Capital
Arsalan Tavakoli
Investor at Foundation Capital
Ashu Garg
Investor at Foundation Capital
Charles Moldow
General Partner at Foundation Capital
Jaya
Investor at Foundation Capital
Jaya Gupta
Investor at Foundation Capital
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Raman Varma?
- Raman Varma is a computer science graduate from UC Berkeley with machine learning experience at Sky Computing, BAIR labs, Square, and Coursera, plus prior software engineering roles at Illumio. He is now co-founder and CEO of Kestrel AI, which develops AI agents for platform engineering teams.
- Where does Raman Varma work?
- Raman Varma is Founder of Kestrel and Build Accelerator Founder at Foundation Capital and Founder at Kestrel AI.
- What companies did Raman Varma found?
- Raman Varma founded Kestrel, Kestrel AI.
- Where did Raman Varma go to school?
- Raman Varma studied at University of California, Berkeley (Bachelor's degree, Computer Science & Data Science).
Founder mafias
Y Combinator mafia10,230
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Sam AltmanPresidentFounded Tools for Humanity +3Garry TanPresident & CEOFounded Y Combinator +1Jessica LivingstonCo-founderFounded Y CombinatorAlexis OhanianPartnerFounded RedditFred EhrsamYC Summer 2012Founded Nudge +1Matt HuangYC Winter 2011Founded Paradigm +1
+ 10,223 more
Coursera mafia34
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Andrew NgDirectorFounded Factored +2Victor NogueraMachine LearningFounded Labsense +1Curtis NorthcuttCoursera Research: Unsupervised learning for Education with Dr. Derek BruffFounded ChipBrain +1Daphne KollerCo-Founder & PresidentFounded Insitro +1Julia StiglitzGlobal Director, Business Development, Strategy and InternationalFounded UplimitSourabh BajajStaff Software EngineerFounded Uplimit
+ 27 more
Foundation Capital mafia24
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Jonathan SiddharthEntrepreneur In ResidenceFounded Turing Enterprises +1Vijay KrishnanEntrepreneur In ResidenceFounded Turing Enterprises +1Leo LuPartnerFounded BrewitStella GarberYoung EntrepreneurFounded HoopMar HershensonEntrepreneur in ResidenceFounded Pear VCJosh ManchesterVenture PartnerFounded Champion Hill Ventures
+ 17 more
Illumio mafia5
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Kestrel mafia2
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Same school
Also attended University of California, Berkeley2,000
Steve WozniakCo-founder of AppleAravind SrinivasCo-founder & CEO of Perplexity AIAli GhodsiCo-founder & CEO of DatabricksAbraham BachrachCo-founder & CTO of SkydioTrevor OelschigInvestment Team at General CatalystAnthony LinHead of Intel Capital, Corporate Vice President at Intel Capital
+ 1,994 more
Shared employers
Also worked at Berkeley RISE Lab20
Assaf ArakiInvestment Director at Intel CapitalSriharsha GuduguntlaHyperbound at Roble VenturesYersultan SaparInvestor at FEBE VenturesMatt TurkScout at Deep ChecksKoki MashitaScout at HOF CapitalDhruv MangtaniFounder at Notebook Labs
+ 14 more
Also worked at Coursera35
Pierre-Eric LeiboviciInvestor at DaphniJulia StiglitzPreviously Partner, GSV Ventures at GSV VenturesSourabh BajajEngineering Advisor at Modern TechnicalCarmen ChangPartner, Head of Asia at New Enterprise Associates (NEA)Rob HutterFounder, Managing Partner at Learn CapitalAndrew NgManaging General Partner at AI Fund
+ 29 more
Also worked at Computer Science Mentors5
Also worked at UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS)43
Arhaan A.Deeptech Fellow at Clear VenturesYersultan SaparInvestor at FEBE VenturesYuka IkarashiInvestor at E14 FundTommy HangInvestor at ArchetypeWeikeng ChenResearch Partner at L2 Iterative Ventures (L2IV)Arvind VivekanandanScout at LvlUp Ventures
+ 37 more