Neha Narkhede (born 1984 or 1985[1]) is an American technology entrepreneur and the co-founder and former CTO of Confluent, a streaming data technology company. She co-created the open source software platform Apache Kafka. Narkhede now serves as a board member of Confluent. She co-founded risk detection platform developer, Oscilar, in 2021, where she is the CEO. In 2020, she was listed as one of America’s Self-Made Women by Forbes.[2]
Neha Narkhede | |
|---|---|
 Narkhede speaking at dotScale 2017 | |
| Born | 1984 or 1985 (age 39–40) Pune, Maharashtra, India |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT), University of Pune Georgia Tech |
Education
editNarkhede was raised in Pune, Maharashtra and went to the Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT), University of Pune, where she gained a Bachelor of Science in engineering. In 2007, she received a masters in technology from Georgia Tech.[3]
Career
editAfter obtaining her Master's degree, Narkhede started her first job at Oracle as a software engineer.[4] After Oracle, she worked as the lead of streams infrastructure at LinkedIn.[4][5]
While working at LinkedIn in 2011, Narkhede created the Platform Apache Kafka, along with Jun Rao and Jay Kreps.[2] They came up with the idea while on a project at the company and developed Kafka as an open source Platform.[6] In 2014 she founded Confluent, a Palo Alto based startup, along with Rao and Kreps and decided to start Confluent as a B2B infrastructure company.[7]
In 2017 she co-authored Kafka: The Definitive Guide along with Gwen Shapira and Todd Palino which is about the technology that created Kafka.[5]
She was the CTO of Confluent and later also took upon the role of chief product officer until 2020,[7] but remained as a board member.[8]
She and her team at Confluent raised $125 million in 2019, bringing its total funding to $206 million in 2019.[3] And in April 2020, the company raised $250 million bringing its total funding to $456 million.[2]
Confluent filed for an initial public offering on June 1, 2021, and was valued at $4.5 billion.[8] Companies such as Goldman Sachs, Netflix and Uber use the platform for data driven purposes.[9]
Narkhede and her husband co-founded Oscilar in 2021, which develops a real-time artificial intelligence-based platform to help decrease the risks involved with online transactions. The company came out of stealth mode two years later, with Narkhede as CEO.[1]
Recognition
editIn 2017, MIT Technology Review listed her as one of the innovators under 35.[10] In the following year Narkhede was listed as one of America's and the world's top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes[2] and she won the Oracle Groundbreaker Award at the Oracle Code One conference in San Francisco.[11] In October 2020, Narkhede was listed #33 on the list of "America's Self Made Women" by Forbes.[2] In 2022, Narkhede received the Abie Award for Technology Entrepreneurship Award Winner at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing from Anitab.[12]
Personal life
editNarkhede is married to Sachin Kulkarni, an engineering executive, with whom she has a son.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c Liu, Phoebe (March 30, 2023). "Confluent Cofounder Neha Narkhede's New Fraud Detecting Firm Oscilar Emerges From Stealth". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 10, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e "Neha Narkhede". Forbes. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
- ^ a b "Neha Narkhede". www.gtalumni.org. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
- ^ a b Higgins, Laine (November 15, 2018). "Tech Entrepreneur Neha Narkhede Credits Sound Counsel for Her Success". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
- ^ a b Dada, Jumoke K. "Technista Talk: Neha Narkhede - LinkedIn Employee To Confluent Boss". Forbes. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
- ^ Tamaseb, A. (2021). Super Founders. PublicAffairs.
- ^ a b "Neha Narkhede changing the face of superstar developers (she co-created Apache Kafka and Confluent!)". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
- ^ a b Novet, Jordan (June 2, 2021). "LinkedIn spinout Confluent files for IPO, with annualized revenue of over $300 million". CNBC. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
- ^ "Neha Narkhede | Innovators Under 35". www.innovatorsunder35.com. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
- ^ "2017". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
- ^ Morales, A. (2018). Oracle Blog. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
- ^ Paul, James (September 22, 2022). "Meet Neha Narkhede, India's Youngest Self-Made Woman Entrepreneur To Make It To Hurun's Rich List". Mashable India.