Prashant Malik
About Prashant Malik
Prashant Malik is a Co-Founder and Co-Creator of Apache Cassandra. He studied computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He worked at Microsoft and then at Facebook in the Bay Area. In a 2013 announcement, Social Samosa reported that he spent about 14 years in the Bay Area, the last five of them at Facebook. At Facebook he first worked on the search system, then co-built Cassandra, which began as storage for inbox search. His Wellfound profile also lists him as technical lead for Facebook's Messages backend and as holding over 16 patents.
In March 2013 he returned to India and joined LimeRoad, a social shopping platform for women, as Co-Founder and CTO. Tracxn lists LimeRoad and Tykhe Ventures as companies he founded. Crunchbase counts three companies founded in total. He is General Partner at Tykhe Block Ventures, according to his X bio and PitchBook. PitchBook also lists advisory or board roles at Bobble AI and Bluzelle, and Tracxn lists a board seat at BangDB.
He is currently working on durable, long-term memory for AI systems. He founded CortexDB (cortexdb.ai), which describes itself as a long-term memory layer for AI agents. Its launch post is dated April 3, 2026.
Crunchbase records 21 investments across 21 portfolio companies. One of those is as lead investor. It also records 7 exits, 2 of them by IPO. Other databases count differently. Tracxn reports 36 portfolio companies and PitchBook reports 28 investments. The differences probably come from how each database counts deals and rounds, so treat any single count as approximate.
Crunchbase lists him as an investor in Shadowfax, UrbanClap, Innov8 Coworking and OfBusiness. Tracxn names Shadowfax and Hinge as notable investments and lists NextBillion AI and Fyle among his exits. PitchBook's profile text, which appears to be self-described, says he is an early investor or advisor in over 50 startups. That text names Zomato among them.
His recent deals include a Seed round in Constelli (September 2024, per Tracxn) and Seed rounds in NEWME (2023, per Tracxn). NFX Signal also lists a Pre-Seed in Marrfa (February 2024) and a Seed in OpenBox AI (March 2026).
His own building is now in AI infrastructure. CortexDB stores information as an immutable event log rather than having an LLM rewrite memory on each write. Its launch post lists SDKs, APIs and MCP-compatible tools, plus connectors for tools such as Slack, GitHub and Jira.
Among his investments, NFX Signal lists OpenBox AI (Seed, March 2026) and FanTV AI (Seed, June 2022). We could not confirm from public sources what OpenBox AI does or what check he wrote. His Crunchbase profile does not describe any AI-specific investment thesis. Founders building agent infrastructure can expect him to bring Cassandra-era distributed systems experience, but no public statement says he prioritizes that category.
NFX Signal classifies him as a Seed investor. The deals it records are mostly Pre-Seed and Seed, with one Series A in RED.Health (January 2022). Tracxn lists his top sectors as Enterprise Applications and Consumer. It lists his top geographies as India and the United States, plus two others it does not name. His portfolio also includes blockchain, healthcare and media companies.
His typical check size is not public. The round sizes shown on aggregator sites are total round amounts, not his own contributions. We found no public statement from him about what he looks for in a pitch. His X bio and recent posts suggest he is most visibly engaged with AI infrastructure and agent memory.
- Shadowfax: logistics company listed by Crunchbase as an investment. Tracxn lists it as an exit. Year not confirmed.
- UrbanClap: home services marketplace, listed by Crunchbase. Year not confirmed.
- OfBusiness: listed by Crunchbase as an investment. Year not confirmed.
- Innov8 Coworking: coworking operator, listed by Crunchbase. Year not confirmed.
- Hinge: named by Tracxn as a notable investment. Year not confirmed.
- OpenBox AI: Seed round, March 2026, per NFX Signal.
- Constelli: Seed round, September 2024, per Tracxn.
- NEWME: Seed round, 2023, per Tracxn.
- Marrfa: Pre-Seed round, February 2024, per NFX Signal. PitchBook labels it real estate services.
- FanTV AI and FanTiger: Seed rounds in 2022, per NFX Signal.
- RED.Health: Series A, January 2022, per NFX Signal.
- Tuktu Care: Pre-Seed round, November 2021, per NFX Signal.
- crunchbase.com/person/prashant-malik
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/123921-01
- signal.nfx.com/investors/prashant-malik
- tracxn.com/d/people/prashant-malik/__ELCADFkWsvx1IVJPsgArieIKFjthve1Sr
- yourstory.com/2019/11/techie-tuesday-prashant-malik-cassandra-facebook
- socialsamosa.com/2013/06/limeroad-prashant-malik-ex-facebook-tech-co-f
- wellfound.com/p/prashant-malik
- x.com/pmalik
Investing activity
Prashant Malik has made 21 investments according to Crunchbase across 21 portfolio companies, and has led 1 round, seen 7 exits, 2 of them by IPO and founded 3 companies.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Prashant Malik
Who is Prashant Malik?
Prashant Malik is a Co-Founder and Co-Creator of Apache Cassandra, a former Facebook and Microsoft engineer and an IIT Delhi alumnus. He co-founded LimeRoad as CTO and is now an angel investor and General Partner at Tykhe Block Ventures.
What stage does Prashant Malik invest in?
NFX Signal lists him as a Seed investor. His recorded deals are mostly Pre-Seed and Seed, with one Series A in RED.Health in January 2022.
What is Prashant Malik's check size?
His check size is not public. Round sizes on aggregator sites are total round amounts, so they do not show what he personally invested.
Does Prashant Malik invest in AI startups?
His public record includes OpenBox AI (Seed, March 2026) and FanTV AI (Seed, 2022), per NFX Signal. He is also building CortexDB, a long-term memory layer for AI agents.
How many investments has Prashant Malik made?
Crunchbase lists 21 investments across 21 portfolio companies, with 7 exits including 2 IPOs. Tracxn and PitchBook report different totals, so the exact figure varies by source.
How can founders reach Prashant Malik?
He posts as @pmalik on X, where he writes about CortexDB and infrastructure. The LinkedIn profile that came up in our search belonged to a different person with the same name, so we have not listed it.
Is Prashant Malik an angel investor?
Yes. Prashant Malik invests personally as an angel and is Co-Founder and Co-Creator at Apache Cassandra. Crunchbase counts 21 investments and 7 exits.
Where is Prashant Malik based?
Prashant Malik is based in Gurugram, Haryana, India.