THE RISING®Nominate

Annual list / 2026

THE RISING
100

The entrepreneurs we believe are building what comes next. The list grows automatically as more candidates clear verification — 38 founders are published today. Nothing is added to reach a round number.

The ranking

Rising / 38

  1. 01

    Franco Rodriguez Viau

    Satellites on Fire · Argentina · Climate / AI

    Raised $2.7M seed led by Dalus Capital, expanding from Latin America to the US, MIT Innovator U35, strong media narrative and rapid team growth.

  2. 02

    Dhawal Jain

    Mave Health · India · Healthtech

    Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree; second-time founder tackling India's mental health crisis with a novel wearable device, covered by Inc42 and Forbes.

  3. 03

    Kazuma Kishida

    Dioseve · Japan · Biotech

    Named Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia; raised Series A (¥1B) plus prior funding totaling ~¥1.42B for a novel stem-cell fertility platform covered by TechCrunch and Forbes.

  4. 04

    Saajan Mangrey

    Suits Finance · United Arab Emirates · Cross-border finance & advisory

    He leads Suits Finance's Dubai desk, helping online entrepreneurs relocate, incorporate and structure across borders from the UAE.

  5. 05

    Amritanshu Jain

    Simplismart · India · AI infrastructure

    Fast-growing AI infra startup attracting Nvidia interest and multiple funding rounds in quick succession, positioning for major scale.

  6. 06

    Hyunjune Ji

    Vacatio · South Korea · Hospitality tech

    Named Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2026; Vacatio won a Red Dot design award and reported 5x global growth in 2025 for its AI hospitality tools.

  7. 07

    Jitendra Kumar Saini

    AquaAirX · India · Amphibious drones

    Named to Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 (2026); launched India's first commercial amphibious drone 'Avataar' with national media coverage and growing headcount.

  8. 08

    Max Werner

    Hades Mining · Germany · Deep tech

    Raised €5.5M pre-seed then a €15M seed (reported ~€67.5M valuation), with backing from HV Capital, Headline and Project A; total raised reported over €20M.

  9. 09

    Puru Rastogi

    Mowito · India · Robotics

    Raised $3M pre-seed led by Version One Ventures with angels including Soumith Chintala; expanding to the US market, addressing a large industrial automation opportunity.

  10. 10

    Stefan Weirich

    mimic · Switzerland · Robotics

    Leads mimic, which has raised over $20M and shipped an in-house dexterous hand (M1) and exoskeleton (U1), drawing talent from DeepMind, Tesla and Stanford.

  11. 11

    Kieran Furlong

    Realta Fusion · Fusion energy

    Repeat fusion-sector entrepreneur who raised a Series A ($10M+) for a technically differentiated fusion approach spun out of University of Wisconsin research, in a fast-growing sector.

  12. 12

    Manish Seth

    Vimag Labs · India · Deep tech / EV

    Series A deep-tech startup solving a globally relevant rare-earth supply chain problem, with patents and OEM pilots underway.

  13. 13

    Matthew Sebastian

    Cekat.AI · Indonesia · Enterprise AI

    Company reported 275% YoY headcount growth to 84 employees, scaling from Indonesia into Singapore HQ, strong local media coverage as a young founder story.

  14. 14

    Maximilian Niroomand

    Lyceum · Germany · AI infrastructure

    Co-founded Lyceum, which raised a reported record €10.3M pre-seed for sovereign European AI compute infrastructure, positioning it for rapid scaling.

  15. 15

    Nathan Saichk

    Longshot Space · United States · Space

    Raised $5M+ seed funding including Air Force and notable angel backing; building novel hypersonic launch infrastructure covered by TechCrunch, SFGate and Aerospace America.

  16. 16

    Nour Al Taher

    Intella · Saudi Arabia · Arabic AI

    Led Intella through an oversubscribed $12.5M Series A from Prosus and 500 Global, tackling an underserved 500M+ speaker Arabic AI market.

  17. 17

    Saaras Mehan

    Jack&Jill · United Kingdom · AI / recruitment

    Jack & Jill raised $20M (Creandum, Dig Ventures) in Oct 2025 to expand to the US, with major press coverage (TechCrunch, Business Insider, The Times), while Mehan remains relatively unknown outside tech/HR circles.

  18. 18

    Shirley Chen

    Botinkit · China · Robotics

    Raised ~$50M in back-to-back Series B rounds (total ~$70M) after earlier $13M round backed by a DJI angel; covered by TechCrunch multiple times as a leading foodservice robotics founder.

  19. 19

    Jamal Rozenblad

    Zevoryx · United Arab Emirates · AI / technology

    Operating two ventures at the intersection of intelligent software and energy, between the UAE and Europe, with an international outlook from an early stage.

  20. 20

    Kenneth Darmansjah

    Soul Parking · Indonesia · Mobility infrastructure

    Led Soul Parking through Series A extension with AppWorks, AC Ventures, Taiwan Mobile and USPACE, expanding into EV/green mobility infrastructure across Indonesia.

  21. 21

    Sebastian Hjärne

    Talentium · Sweden · AI / recruitment

    22-year-old founder profiled by Forbes and backed by Klarna's CEO and EQT Ventures; raised roughly $4-6.5M and secured enterprise customers, indicating strong early trajectory relative to age/experience.

  22. 22

    Tanay Lohia

    Mandrake Bio · India · Biotech / AI

    Raised ~$1.9M pre-seed co-led by Activate and Antler with strategic biotech angels, and is an Emergent Ventures Fellow, tackling a globally significant deep-tech problem.

  23. 23

    Andrew Murray

    Aslan Renewables · Canada · Clean energy

    Recently secured funding to expand modular turbine tech and is getting national trade-press coverage ('IKEA instructions' hydro), positioning him as an emerging clean-energy infrastructure founder.

  24. 24

    Christian Nwachukwu

    10mg Health · Healthtech

    Recognized speaker at Africa Tech Summit and profiled by RefinedNG; building novel embedded-finance infrastructure for healthcare providers, a large underserved credit gap ($60B claimed by company).

  25. 25

    Joseph Kao

    Magnefy · Energy / AI

    Stanford spinout with $3.4M raised, 200% YoY headcount growth, and profiled by Stanford GSB for AI-driven predictive maintenance of critical power grid assets.

  26. 26

    Julie Böhning

    PAVE Space · Switzerland · Space

    Leads PAVE Space's kickstage development for satellite orbit transfer, building on the team's reusable rocket prototype (Gruyère Space Program) flown 50+ times.

  27. 27

    Lucas Posada

    Takenos · Argentina · Fintech

    Raised $5M seed co-led by Variant and Lattice, described as fastest-growing neobank in West LatAm with reported 10x YoY growth, backed by notable crypto/fintech investors.

  28. 28

    Rifanditto Adhikara

    Sirka · Indonesia · Healthtech

    Y Combinator alum with a proactive personalized healthcare platform expanding across Southeast Asia; Stanford GSB background and consistent founder-story coverage.

  29. 29

    Shalmali Kadu

    DUSQ · India · Neurotech

    DUSQ became the fastest Indian healthtech company to cross $1M on Kickstarter and raised ₹24 Cr seed led by Fireside Ventures, with Antler backing.

  30. 30

    Sun Zhaozhi

    Robopoet · China · Consumer robotics

    Raised angel funding from Shanghai Film Group and GSR Ventures; Fuzozo AI pet sold nearly 300,000 units since July 2025 launch with strong engagement, per BigGo/Xinhua coverage.

  31. 31

    Trina Das

    Trinzz · United States · Healthcare AI

    Building foundational data infrastructure for regulated medical AI, backed by Techstars, at an inflection point for healthcare AI adoption.

  32. 32

    Harry Yu

    Level3AI · Singapore · AI agents

    Raised $13M seed led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with BEENEXT, 500 Global, Sovereign's Capital and Goodwater Capital; scaling headcount fast (+400% YoY) across multiple APAC markets.

  33. 33

    Kunal Shrivastava

    SUIND · India · Autonomous drones

    SUIND raised ₹20.5 Cr ($2.2M) seed led by Transition VC and IIMA Ventures, bringing total funding to $2.8M, and is scaling commercial drone deployment.

  34. 34

    Lemuel Low

    ReN3 · Singapore · Enterprise AI

    Led ReN3 to a $5M seed round from Vertex Ventures SEA & India to scale sovereign enterprise agentic AI, an early but well-backed traction signal.

  35. 35

    Michele Stansfield

    Cauldron Ferm · Australia · Biomanufacturing

    Backed by Main Sequence Ventures; profiled as Startup of the Week by The Innovator; positioning Cauldron as Asia-Pacific's first precision fermentation manufacturing launchpad.

  36. 36

    Nikunj Bajaj

    TrueFoundry · India · AI infrastructure

    Leading a well-funded AI infra startup backed by Intel Capital with enterprise traction, in a fast-growing AI deployment segment.

  37. 37

    Tomas Uribe

    Mavity · Colombia · AI / creative

    Backed by investors including Morgan Stanley, L'Attitude Ventures and Google; featured in Inc. and Forbes; grown to 18 employees across 4 countries with $2.9M total funding and reported 86K+ tasks completed on platform.

  38. 38

    Yu Yinan

    Vita Dynamics · China · Robotics

    Secured a large seed round (~RMB100M) led by Horizon Robotics and Hillhouse-affiliated GL Ventures; press describes it as the largest single-round funding in its niche as it moves toward mass production.

Secondary list

Watchlist / 44

Founders scoring 65–79 — real momentum, not yet in the Rising pool.

  1. W01

    Enyegue Carl Dimick

    Metroo / OrtCloud · Singapore · Cloud infrastructure

    Raised $1.7-2.2M pre-seed from Golden Gate Ventures and Antler, named to Forbes Asia 100 to Watch 2026, participated in K-Startup Grand Challenge.

  2. W02

    Iddi Mohammed Faried

    Kodu Technology · Agritech

    Company has a Wikipedia entry, generates revenue, won the GoGettaz Grand Prize, and addresses period poverty at scale across Africa with a circular-economy model tied to smallholder farmers.

  3. W03

    Jenny Lemieux

    Vivid Machines · Canada · Agtech / AI

    Product veteran turned agtech founder building real-time crop vision systems; featured in founder Q&As and women-in-tech spotlights, gaining industry visibility.

  4. W04

    Raghava K

    Sanyark Space · India · Space

    Deep technical pedigree (8 years at ISRO, 40+ launch missions) building next-gen NAV-COM satellites; company has raised pre-seed/seed funding and grown to ~26 employees.

  5. W05

    Yonghoon Cho

    Bitelab · South Korea · Consumer / beauty tech

    Raised its first external round of $6.9-7.3M from Atinum Investment and strategic investor CJ Olive Young; company reportedly doubling revenue annually.

  6. W06

    Bruce Yang

    Sapiens Technology · Singapore · AI models

    Raised $20M for homegrown Singapore AI models and is getting profiled in regional/business press as a rising sovereign-AI builder.

  7. W07

    Daniel Garzón

    Creditop · Colombia · Fintech

    Raised $3.7M seed in Aug 2025 from Collide Capital, Clocktower and others; growing team (~29 employees, +81% YoY) tackling LatAm's low card-penetration credit gap.

  8. W08

    Juan Cereigido

    Ato AI · Argentina · AI / elder care

    Argentine founder building a consumer AI hardware product for an underserved elder-care market, with notable angel backing and early production traction.

  9. W09

    Lee Yoo-Joo

    Veramore · South Korea · Consumer

    Secured Rakuten Capital's first-ever K-beauty investment in a Pre-Series A round and featured on Forbes Asia's 100 To Watch 2026 list amid global skincare expansion.

  10. W10

    Luc Okalobe

    Yamify · DR Congo · AI infrastructure

    Raised a pre-seed round backed by an early Paystack investor for 'Heroku for AI in Africa,' with strong technical pedigree and coverage from Techpoint Africa and Launch Africa.

  11. W11

    Tomaž Štolfa

    Sunrise Robotics · Slovenia · Robotics

    Emerged from stealth with $8.5M seed led by Plural to democratize industrial automation; prior track record building/backing multiple startups since 2010.

  12. W12

    Wang Zengyue

    Luquos Energy · Hong Kong · Energy storage

    Company has raised $12.8M+ in funding, backed by HKSTP incubation and CUHK research, positioned in growing grid-storage/flow-battery market.

  13. W13

    Bianca Belnadia Lie

    Loluna · Indonesia · Consumer / health

    Loluna grew headcount 33% YoY, gained rapid brand recognition among young Indonesian mothers per local business press, leveraging her prior retail/e-commerce scaling experience.

  14. W14

    Carolina Goncebat

    My Phoenyx · Argentina · AI / education

    Second-time founder with a prior Series A-to-exit track record; MIT Sloan background; small but growing team (4 people, +100% YoY) with media coverage (Foreign Founders podcast).

  15. W15

    Eugenio Scafati

    Autonoma AI · Argentina · Cybersecurity

    Argentine founder backed by top-tier VC Bessemer and unicorn-builder angels, building AI-driven software testing automation.

  16. W16

    Nico Rojas

    Dapta · Colombia · AI agents

    Raised over $7M total across pre-seed/seed rounds (500 Global, Seedstars, Fen Ventures); grew Dapta to 40+ employees across 6 countries with reported 150,000+ users.

  17. W17

    Rich Sloan

    WAVR Technologies · Water / climate

    UNLV deep-tech spinout with $1.15M-$4M raised, growing team (+200% YoY), media coverage (Las Vegas Review-Journal, gener8tor) and Fortune 1000 pilot partners signal early commercial momentum.

  18. W18

    Touko Rautiainen

    Kova Labs · Finland · Autonomous systems

    Co-leads Kova Labs, a defense-tech startup backed by Lifeline Ventures, selected for the EU's BraveTech DefTech Forges Phase II accelerator program.

  19. W19

    Meghana Jagadeesh

    GoCodeo · India · AI coding

    Grew GoCodeo to 40K+ developers with zero paid spend and closed a $150K seed round from 100X.VC; gaining media profile as a non-technical AI founder.

  20. W20

    Miks Ozols

    Loki Robotics · Switzerland · Robotics

    Raised $1.6M seed for Loki Robotics, backed by byFounders, Acequia Capital and Unruly Capital, tackling a high-complexity real-world robotics niche (facility cleaning).

  21. W21

    Deryl Lu

    Dayatani · Indonesia · Agritech

    Raised $2.3M seed round for DayaTani, deploying IoT weather stations and a farmer-facing app across Indonesia; ex-Sayurbox/BCG background.

  22. W22

    Juan Fernandez

    SmartTIVA · United States · Medtech

    Two US patents granted, active clinical partnership pursuit, pursuing MBA at Johns Hopkins while scaling a novel medtech device with regulatory traction in Colombia.

  23. W23

    Mauricio Gil

    Motai · Colombia · Mobility

    Backed by Orbit Startups 2025 cohort; covered by El Espectador; grown to 28 employees (+272.7% YoY) building formal asset infrastructure for LatAm's motorcycle market.

  24. W24

    Ola Fadiran

    ChipMango · United States · Semiconductors

    Raised $1.9M to build African engineering talent into global chip-design capability, and became a Cadence Certified Training Partner, addressing a strategically important niche.

  25. W25

    Victoria Mwaura

    Provision Sight Africa · AI / accessibility

    Early-stage MVP venture that won top prize at a Women in STEM summit and received local press coverage, addressing accessibility for the visually impaired in Kenya and East Africa.

  26. W26

    Salma Mayorquin

    Remyx AI · United States · AI

    Deep technical background (decade in ML/vision-language research); building developer tooling since 2023; small pre-seed team but active GitHub presence and conference speaking.

  27. W27

    Ahmad Ghahreman

    Cyclic Materials · Canada · Circular economy

    Serial cleantech entrepreneur (co-inventor of Jetti Resources tech, Li-Cycle advisor) scaling a rare-earth recycling company amid rising critical-minerals demand.

  28. W28

    Anas Chanaa

    Nucleon Security · Cybersecurity

    Positioned as building Morocco's first sovereign cybersecurity platform, joined Plug and Play's Scale 360 program in UAE, and profiled in multiple industry interviews signaling growing regional visibility.

  29. W29

    David Adeleke

    Zeeh Africa · Nigeria · Fintech

    Building open banking infra for underbanked Africa, backed by AWS FinTech Africa Accelerator and Tekedia Capital, with growing recognition on fintech speaker circuits.

  30. W30

    Felipe Ramirez

    Finturu · Colombia · Commerce / AI

    Raised $1.3M seed in Dec 2025 from angel investors; expanding stablecoin-powered settlement infrastructure across Latin America.

  31. W31

    Vanessa Heppner

    Alta AI · United States · Enterprise AI

    Building a finance-focused AI/tech spend intelligence platform addressing a timely enterprise pain point, with early VC backing.

  32. W32

    Zehan Wang

    Paddington Robotics · United Kingdom · Robotics

    Repeat founder with an exit (Magic Pony/Twitter) now building embodied AI/robotics at Paddington Robotics, an early-stage London startup founded 2024.

  33. W33

    Himanshu Sahu

    Voltworks · India · EV / hardware

    Building integrated EV powertrain (motor, controller, software) with institutional backing and headcount growth (+30.8% YoY) in India's growing EV component market.

  34. W34

    Jacobo Adberstein

    Reflekt Legal · United States · Legal AI

    Raised $700K in prior funding round; grown to 4 employees; unusual founder background (NASA engineer to legal AI CEO) with active product rebrand in 2026.

  35. W35

    Rodgers Wisdom

    Keverd AI · Fraud / security

    Early-stage (2025-founded, ~3 employees) fintech security startup with a differentiated device-intelligence approach, active build-in-public presence and real client fraud-prevention case studies shared on LinkedIn.

  36. W36

    David Restrepo

    Meroo · United States · HR tech

    Second-time founder (prior exit); building gamified skills-based hiring platform since 2024, recently launched V2 of app; small team (~4 people) still early-stage.

  37. W37

    Elisa Seghetti

    Saturn Dynamics · United Kingdom · AI / simulation

    Co-founded Saturn Dynamics, an early-stage (2025) physics-aware simulation startup featured in a Women in AI cohort and Takeoff Accelerator; still very early with limited disclosed funding.

  38. W38

    Kwabena Sarpong

    Midiarack · Ghana · Media technology

    Launched a novel ad-tech marketplace addressing fragmented African media buying, with press coverage from Citi Newsroom and TechLabari shortly after launch.

  39. W39

    Ross Coull

    Skye Renewables · Singapore · Clean energy

    Ex-private equity investor (CDC Group/BII) who built a solar developer that attracted institutional investment from Clime Capital; established but still scaling regionally.

  40. W40

    Ryoga Okunishi

    IVRy · Japan · AI / communications

    Raised a Series D (¥4B) plus mega-bank debt financing, bringing total funding to over ¥15B, with growing enterprise adoption of its AI phone platform.

  41. W41

    Sarath Kolli

    Boltzmann Labs · Biotech / AI

    Building a multi-platform AI drug discovery stack (BoltChem, ReBolt, BoltPro, BoltBio, ClinBolt) covered by Inc42, but funding remains very small ($113K-$300K) after 6 years.

  42. W42

    Ariel Mathov

    021 · Mexico · AI / product

    Second-time founder with a prior acquisition, now building an AI product management tool and actively pitching investors in New York.

  43. W43

    Henock Mukendi

    Daredare · Democratic Republic of Congo · Logistics / fintech

    Building unified logistics and trust infrastructure (GPS tracking, escrow payments) for a market with poor formal addressing, an underserved DRC logistics gap.

  44. W44

    Kamal El Hardouzi

    Woliz · Morocco · Retail / fintech

    Building infrastructure to digitize Africa's informal retail sector, with coverage from We Are Tech Africa and Start-up.ma, though no funding round confirmed yet.

Not ranked

Under verification / 13

Visible for transparency. These records are not presented as verified Rising selections and carry no score.

  1. —

    Neal Rickner

    Airloom Energy · Energy

    Company has strong momentum ($13.75M+ raised, Bloomberg/TechCrunch coverage, Bill Gates-backed), but Rickner is a hired CEO, not founder, and has 25 years of prior senior experience, reducing fit as an emerging 'rising' founder.

  2. —

    Valerie Gonzalez

    NIMA AI · Kenya · AI / commerce

    Building an AI try-on tool addressing Africa's mobile-first social commerce gap, but company is very early (MVP stage, 2 employees) with no confirmed funding found.

  3. —

    Sam Davies

    Flux · Kenya · Climate

    Built notable climate venture with media coverage and UN partnerships, but recently departed as CEO/co-founder, raising uncertainty about current role and trajectory.

  4. —

    Asnake Amelo

    CO-LAB · Ethiopia · Healthtech

    Recognized via MIT Solve 2025 Global Health Challenge submission for CO-LAB; also holds separate CEO title at ACUBED, creating some ambiguity in founder role clarity.

  5. —

    Deepak Reddy

    Rotatum Mechatronics · India · Robotics

    Deep aerospace/robotics engineering background (Skyroot, SS Innovations) and T-Works incubation, but no confirmed funding round or public traction metrics found.

  6. —

    Eric Flores

    AgentShelf.ai · United States · AI infrastructure

    Very early-stage (founded 2026, 3 employees) enterprise AI agent startup; insufficient evidence of traction or momentum yet.

  7. —

    Lucia Valdivia

    Bolta · United States · AI / marketing

    Early-stage AI social media automation tool with self-reported user base; role titles (CMO vs. founder) are inconsistent across sources and funding is unverified.

  8. —

    Christian Gallo Pelaez

    Dialtu · AI agents

    Insufficient evidence: no source ties this named individual to Dialtu as founder; company itself (AI sales/customer service automation) appears operating but founder identity does not match.

  9. —

    Eric Garcia

    SentrIQ Labs · United States · Cybersecurity

    Very early pre-seed stage (raising $1.3M target), tiny team, limited independent press coverage beyond directory/pitch listings.

  10. —

    Satria Situmorang

    Satu Dental · Indonesia · Healthtech

    Total raised ~$10M, expanding rapidly across Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya with strong revenue growth, though he joined as CEO rather than founding the company himself.

  11. —

    Akifumi Morinaka

    Rege Nephro · Japan · Biotech

    Rege Nephro closed a ~$10.6M/¥1.22B round for its ADPKD drug candidate RN-014, but Morinaka is CEO rather than the company's founder (founder is Prof. Kenji Osafune).

  12. —

    Michael Peirone

    Victoria Hand Project · Canada · Prosthetics

    He is CEO, not founder (VHP was founded by Nick Dechev); as a nonprofit executive rather than a startup founder, fit as a 'Rising Entrepreneur' is unclear.

  13. —

    Morteza Ahmadi

    Qidni Labs · Canada · Medtech

    Long-running deep-tech medtech founder tackling a huge unmet need (10M+ dialysis patients), with sustained press coverage (CBC, Digitimes) though still pre-commercialization.

01

Trajectory

Momentum over the last 12 to 24 months, read from independent sources.

02

Potential

How much more important this founder could become in three to five years.

03

Execution

Evidence that the team ships, and differentiation from everyone nearby.

04

Story

Early signals, global reach and an editorial reason to follow the work.

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