Akshay Kothari
About Akshay Kothari
Akshay Kothari is a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Notion. He grew up in India and studied electrical engineering in the US. He earned a bachelor's degree at Purdue in 2007 and a master's at Stanford in 2010. Before Stanford he worked briefly as an analyst at SDL Ventures in Los Altos.
While at Stanford, he and Ankit Gupta built the mobile news app Pulse during the d.school's Launchpad course. He was CEO of Pulse from 2010. LinkedIn acquired it in 2013 for a reported $90 million. At LinkedIn he was product lead from 2013 to 2015. He then served as VP of Product and Head of LinkedIn India from 2016 to 2018, based in Bengaluru.
Kothari joined Notion in August 2018, when the company was still small, as COO. Notion lists him as a co-founder. Forbes reported in 2024 that he runs a broad set of functions at the company, and that Notion was valued at about $10 billion. Crunchbase records 0 companies founded under his profile, but Pulse is documented elsewhere as a company he co-founded.
Kothari's best-known angel check is in Notion. Forbes reported that he put $75,000 into the company in 2013, using proceeds from the sale of Pulse. He said in an interview that he angel invested that year and that at times he thought he had lost the investment. In 2018 the founders offered him the COO role.
Crunchbase counts 27 investments for him, with 0 lead investments and 0 exits. Other databases give different totals. CB Insights shows 38 investments and Tracxn shows 59, so treat the number as approximate.
Before the recent AI wave, his Crunchbase activity included early rounds in enterprise software and developer tools. Examples are OSlash (2022), TeamOhana (2022), Drivetrain (2022), Akto (2022), Hashboard and Pando.
Crunchbase counts 17 AI investments since 2023. Its AI portfolio list for him includes Bezi, Natural, Simplismart, Eigen, Yutori, Resolve.ai, Recraft, Mainframe, Duna, Nango, Maxed and Wafer.
Some of these rounds can be dated from public listings. Recraft raised in January 2024 and Simplismart in July 2024. Mainframe raised in December 2024. Yutori's $15 million seed was in March 2025, and Duna's $12.1 million seed in May 2025. Tracxn lists Duna as his most recent investment in its AI-heavy portfolio data. Crunchbase and CB Insights also show his participation in rounds at Gimlet Labs (October 2025), Wabi (November 2025), Raindrop (December 2025) and Quanta (December 2025). Round dates are not always the date of his own check.
He is also close to AI as an operator. Notion launched Notion AI, and in 2024 it launched Notion Calendar after integrating Cron.
The visible activity is early-stage: pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds, usually alongside institutional investors. Crunchbase shows no lead investments, so founders should expect him as a participating angel rather than a round lead. Third-party databases describe his sectors as enterprise software and SaaS, AI, and developer-facing tools. They also list some fintech and other categories. Tracxn shows investments in the United States, India and several other countries.
He has not published a check size or a formal thesis. The only figure on record is the $75,000 Notion check from 2013, which does not indicate his current range.
In a post on his X account, Kothari said he is joining FPV Ventures to find and invest in what he called unreasonably deep founders. Founders should confirm directly how that role relates to his personal angel investing.
- Notion: workspace and productivity software he co-founded as COO. He first invested as an angel in 2013.
- Yutori: AI startup with a $15 million seed round in March 2025.
- Duna: AI company with a $12.1 million seed round in May 2025.
- Resolve.ai: AI company listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Recraft: AI design tool company that raised in January 2024.
- Simplismart: AI inference company that raised in July 2024.
- Mainframe: AI company that raised in December 2024.
- Bezi: AI company listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Drivetrain: finance planning software company that raised in October 2022.
- OSlash: workplace productivity software company that raised in 2022.
- crunchbase.com/person/7c4ae7bf-fe44-2bb4-c2f8-316c64e37581
- crunchbase.com/person/akshay-kothari/person_overview_investor/timeline
- forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2024/04/11/10-billion-productivity-startup
- dschool.stanford.edu/stories/thrill-of-the-build-akshay-kothari-notion
- siliconvalleyinvestclub.com/companies/notion/team/akshay-kothari
- manual.compoundplanning.com/chapters/interview-with-akshay-kothari-chi
- tracxn.com/d/people/akshay-kothari/__LRF5XHBVvnEssOv0pDXfXfZcalKpcWV-7
- cbinsights.com/investor/akshay-kothari
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Akshay Kothari has made 27 investments according to Crunchbase. 17 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Bezi, Natural, Simplismart, Eigen and Yutori.
Akshay Kothari appears in 2 AI deals tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $15M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $15M. The most recent are Eigen (Seed, $15M, Apr 2026) and Nango (Seed, $4.5M, Mar 2026).
Akshay Kothari most often invests alongside Benchmark, Peter Sellis, Terrence Rohan and K5 Global, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Akshay Kothari
Who is Akshay Kothari?
He is a co-founder and COO of Notion and the former CEO of Pulse, which LinkedIn acquired in 2013. He is based in San Francisco and invests personally in early-stage software and AI companies.
Does Akshay Kothari invest in AI startups?
Yes. Crunchbase counts 17 AI investments since 2023, including Yutori, Duna, Resolve.ai, Recraft, Simplismart and Bezi.
What is Akshay Kothari's check size?
It is not public. The only known figure is the $75,000 he put into Notion in 2013, as reported by Forbes.
What stage does Akshay Kothari invest in?
His recorded rounds are mostly pre-seed, seed and Series A. Crunchbase shows no lead investments, so he usually joins rounds that others lead.
How can founders contact Akshay Kothari?
His public profiles are LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/akothari and X at @akothari. He has no known personal site. Warm introductions from his portfolio founders or co-investors are the more typical route.
Was Akshay Kothari an early investor in Notion?
Yes. He invested as an angel in 2013 and joined Notion as COO in 2018.
Is Akshay Kothari an angel investor?
Yes. Akshay Kothari invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 27 investments.
What AI companies has Akshay Kothari invested in?
Akshay Kothari's AI investments include Bezi, Natural, Simplismart, Eigen, Yutori, Resolve.ai, Recraft and Mainframe. The 2 rounds on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Akshay Kothari based?
Akshay Kothari is based in San Francisco, United States.
What stage does Akshay Kothari invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Akshay Kothari has invested at Seed, with a median round of $15M.