Stealth Startup Spy #338 - by Drake Dukes

Source: original

Stealth Startup Spy #338

Ex-Cruise AI Director builds self-driving personal finance, VoiceBase founder ($120M exit) returns with AI finance venture, & Ex-Dropbox & Facebook designer with Perplexity exit goes stealth

Drake Dukes

May 11, 2026

🚀 We just launched a new newsletter — Company Launch Tracker.

We’re tracking company launches as they happen and surfacing the most interesting new founders and startups (yes, all outside of this stealth activity too). If you want to stay ahead of the curve, this is where you’ll find them first.

Right now we’ve got 5 subscribers: my wife, my mom, and that high school buddy who won’t stop pitching me his app. Be smart like them and get in early 👇

We run a live feed inside Gravity that tracks founders entering stealth and companies quietly exiting it.

What you’re reading here is about 1% of the stealth activity we pick up. The full tracker updates in real time as things change and new activity emerges.

If you want earlier access to everything, book some time with us to stay ahead.

In this issue of the Stealth Startup Spy, here is what we will uncover:

Now let’s shine the spotlight… 💡💡💡

🕵️‍♂️Founders Coming Out of Stealth

Real-time updates from founders who debut what they’ve been working on under stealth mode

Ambrish Tyagi - Founder & CEO at Rivo

🔎 Featured Founder under stealth mode in StealthStartSpy#2267

FounderDNA: Doctorate Degree, Former FAANG

Prior Experience: Director of AI at Cruise, Head of AI – Halo & Principal Scientist at Amazon Lab126, AI Advisor at Bain Capital Ventures, Fellow at South Park Commons

Connect on:LinkedIn

Rivo is an autonomous personal finance platform that sweeps idle cash from checking accounts into higher-yield instruments, monitors spending, and returns funds before bills are due, without requiring users to change banks or habits.

HQ: United States

Industry: FinTech, Personal Finance, AI | Team Size: 2

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Year 2 Months

Sebastian Bugal - Founder at Mercora

FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder

Prior Experience: Entrepreneur in Residence at Antler, AI & ML Software Engineer at KPMG Switzerland, Machine Learning Engineer at Alessa (Tier1 Financial Solutions), Co-Founder at Kliq Social, Founding Engineer at Vezgo

Connect on:LinkedIn

Mercora is a B2B SaaS platform that automates trade documentation reconciliation for commodity trading, using AI to extract structured data, match documents to trades, and flag discrepancies.

HQ: Switzerland

Industry: FinTech, Supply Chain, B2B SaaS

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 4 Months

Luke Button - Co-Founder & CEO at Hedge

FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Prior Exit

Prior Experience: Co-Founder & CEO at Fernstone (YCF25), Director of Operations at Traba, Head of Growth at Antimetal, Co-Founder at Contrast (acquired)

Connect on:LinkedIn

Hedge is a specialty insurance placement platform for retail agents, providing direct access to specialty markets through a single submission.

HQ: United States

Industry: InsurTech | Team Size: 2

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 months

Stephen Fong - Co-Founder at Castellan AI

FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Top 10 University

Prior Experience: Head of Business Operations & GTM at Eventual, Head of Business Operations & Revenue Strategy at Unity, Financial Analyst at J.P. Morgan, UC Berkeley alum

Connect on:LinkedIn

Castellan AI is a 24/7 AI platform for property managers, handling leasing, maintenance, and operations end-to-end.

HQ: United States

Industry: PropTech, AI Agents, B2B SaaS

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 3 Months

Waldo Rabie - Founder at Zoont Health

FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder

Prior Experience: Co-Founder & CTO at Rezon.ai, Co-Founder & CTO at Keepsake, Co-Founder & CTO at Pegasus Innovations, Senior Engineer at Klarna, Founding Engineer at Cincinnati Ventures

Connect on:LinkedIn

Zoont Health is a direct primary care platform offering unlimited physician access for a flat monthly fee, with same-day appointments, labs and prescriptions at cost, and AI-assisted health insights drawn from records and wearable data (no insurance required.)

HQ: United States

Industry: HealthTech, Direct Primary Care

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 5 Months

🕵️‍♂️Key Talent Going Under Stealth

Illuminating clues left behind by world class talent and influential innovators who just went into stealth mode

Hadi Goudarzi - Co-Founder at Stealth AI Startup

FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree

Prior Experience: Technical Director of AI Hardware at Tesla, PhD in Electrical Engineering at University of Southern California, Senior Staff Engineer & Manager at Qualcomm

Connect on:LinkedIn

HQ: Mountain View, California, United States

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 Months

Walter Bachtiger - Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup

Building at the intersection of AI and finance.

FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Masters Degree, Prior Exit

Prior Experience : Founder & CEO at VoiceBase (acquired by LivePerson), VP of Voice AI at LivePerson, CTO at International Training Institute, Head of Distribution Strategies & Channel Development at Swiss Union of Raiffeisen Banks

Connect on:LinkedIn

HQ: San Francisco, California, United States

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 Months

Colin Dunn - Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup

FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Former FAANG

Prior Experience: Head of Design, Computer at Perplexity, Founder & CEO at Visual Electric (acquired by Perplexity; featured at launch in October 2023), Product Designer at Dropbox, Product Designer at Facebook

Connect on:LinkedIn

HQ: United States

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 Months

Badri Srinivasan - Co-Founder & CEO at Stealth Startup

FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Masters Degree

Prior Experience: Group Product Manager, Machine Learning at Attentive, Group Product Manager, Machine Learning at Wayfair, Data Scientist / MLE at BCG GAMMA

Connect on:LinkedIn

HQ: United States

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 2 Months

Fabien Chraim - Co-Founder at Stealth Startup

FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University

Prior Experience: UC Berkeley PhD, Principal Applied Scientist at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Co-Founder & CTO at Civil Maps

Connect on:LinkedIn

HQ: United States

Time Spent in Stealth Mode: 1 Month

🚨Here’s the deal 🚨This email has gotten too big. Exciting, but with more people following it, the edge diminishes. I’ve thought long and hard about what to do to preserve the value in the signals. I’m not sure about the final direction yet, but in the meantime I’ve been sending an email 48 hours earlier to a select group of paid subscribers. The feedback has been pretty positive so I’m going to open up the list for another 100 spots. To get signals early, Apply here!

Stay Stealthy,

Drake

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Stealth Startup Spy is a data-driven newsletter for investors, journalists and tech enthusiasts interested in uncovering the next big move for key talent, real-time stealth company launches and technology advancements not in plain sight. We leverage the technology built at Gravity to shine a light on the hidden world of stealth startups.