Deepak Pathak
About Deepak Pathak
Deepak Pathak is co-founder and CEO of Skild AI, which builds a general-purpose AI model, or "brain", for robots. He started the company in May 2023 with Abhinav Gupta, who is its president. He is also Raj Reddy Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), in the School of Computer Science and the Robotics Institute.
Pathak earned a B.Tech in computer science at IIT Kanpur in 2014. He completed a PhD at UC Berkeley in 2019, advised by Alexei Efros and Trevor Darrell. He then spent a year as a researcher at Meta's Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab before joining CMU in 2020. Earlier he co-founded VisageMap Inc., an AI biometrics company that FaceFirst later acquired.
His research covers self-supervised learning, curiosity-driven exploration and sim-to-real adaptation for robots. He has been named a Sloan Fellow and an MIT TR35 honoree. In June 2026 he received the PAMI Young Researcher Award at CVPR.
Pathak's profiles describe him as an angel investor, and one aggregator dates this activity from 2023. I found no public list of his angel investments beyond Sycamore. I also found no statement from him about his angel strategy or check size.
Sycamore announced a $65M seed round on March 30, 2026, to build an operating system for enterprise AI agents. Coatue and Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round. The company's press release lists Pathak among its notable angel investors, as co-founder of Skild AI. Abhinav Gupta, his Skild AI co-founder, is listed alongside him.
His operating experience in AI is at Skild AI. According to Pathak, the company has raised more than $2B across four rounds. Its most recent round, a Series C of close to $1.4B led by SoftBank, closed in January 2026.
Pathak has not published a thesis, preferred stage or check size. The one known angel round is a large seed in enterprise AI agent infrastructure. His own work is in robotics, foundation models and embodied AI. Founders should treat these as background only, not as a stated investment focus.
- Sycamore: enterprise AI agent operating system for deploying and managing AI agents; $65M seed announced March 2026, with Pathak named as an angel.
Investing activity
Deepak Pathak appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $65M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $65M. The most recent is Sycamore (Seed, $65M, Mar 2026).
Deepak Pathak most often invests alongside Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, Soham Mazumdar and Dell Technologies Capital, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Deepak Pathak
Is Deepak Pathak an angel investor in AI startups?
Yes. Sycamore's March 2026 seed announcement names him as an angel. He is better known as co-founder and CEO of Skild AI and a CMU professor.
Which AI startups has Deepak Pathak invested in?
The only investment I could confirm is Sycamore, an enterprise AI agent platform that raised a $65M seed in March 2026. No complete portfolio list is public.
What check size does Deepak Pathak write?
He has not disclosed a check size publicly. The sources I found give no figure.
What stage and sectors does Deepak Pathak back?
He has not stated a stage or sector focus. His one confirmed angel investment is a seed round in enterprise AI agent infrastructure. His own field is robotics and embodied AI.
Who is Deepak Pathak?
He is co-founder and CEO of Skild AI, which builds a general-purpose robot brain, and Raj Reddy Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He holds a PhD from UC Berkeley and a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur.
How can founders reach Deepak Pathak?
He posts on X as @pathak2206 and lists a personal academic site. A warm introduction from his AI or robotics network is likely the more practical route. He has not published a pitch process.
Is Deepak Pathak an angel investor?
Yes. Deepak Pathak invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Deepak Pathak invested in?
Deepak Pathak's AI investments include Sycamore. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Deepak Pathak invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Deepak Pathak has invested at Seed, with a median round of $65M.
Who does Deepak Pathak co-invest with?
Deepak Pathak's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Lightspeed Venture Partners (1 deal), Coatue (1 deal), Soham Mazumdar (1 deal), Dell Technologies Capital (1 deal) and Rajiv Gupta (1 deal).