Neha Narkhede

Neha Narkhede, co-founder of Confluent, the $7.5 billion company that went public in 2021.

Neha Narkhede, co-founder of Confluent, the $7.5 billion company that went public in 2021.

Neha is well-known for her time at LinkedIn, where she co-created Apache Kafka – the open-source messaging system that handles data pipelines for thousands of companies, including more than 80% of Fortune 100 companies such as Goldman Sachs, Target and Intuit.

Born in India, her journey started with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Savitribai Phule Pune University and an MS in the same subject from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Her career trajectory:
► She began her career at Oracle in 2008, where she served as a lead engineer, designing and implementing hierarchical faceted search in Oracle Text.
► In 2011, she joined LinkedIn as a software engineer, where she co-created Apache Kafka to handle the company’s huge influx of data.
► In 2014, Neha co-founded Confluent, through which she helped organisations deploy their systems on Apache Kafka and process large amounts of data with it.

By 2019, Confluent had raised more than $200 million from VC firms, which landed Narkhede on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women. The company went public in 2021, hitting a market cap of $24.75 billion and making Narkhede a billionaire for several months. She continues to serve on the company’s board today.

In 2021, she co-founded Oscilar, an AI fraud-detection firm working to make online transactions safer. The no-code AI platform is designed to allow for quick adoption and deployment without engineering resources.

Neha Narkhede has been featured as one of:
► Forbes’ America’s Self Made Women (2024)
► Forbes’ World’s Top 50 Women in Tech (2018)
► Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People (2016)

Ps. Neha runs Oscilar together with her husband, Sachin Kulkarni – the $20 million company is completely self-funded by the two to allow for quicker growth and scaling.