Qasar Younis
About Qasar Younis
Qasar Younis is the co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a Mountain View company that builds software for physical AI in vehicles, industrial machines and defense. He started it in January 2017 with Peter Ludwig. In June 2025 the company raised $600M at a $15B valuation.
Younis was born in Punjab, Pakistan, and grew up in the Detroit area. He earned a mechanical engineering degree at Kettering University and an MBA at Harvard Business School. He worked as an automotive engineer at General Motors and Bosch, and in 2007 he co-founded the crowdfunding startup Cameesa.
His second company, TalkBin, was a customer feedback app that went through Y Combinator and was acquired by Google in 2011. He then spent about three and a half years at Google as a product lead on Google Maps. He joined Y Combinator as a part-time partner in 2013 and became a partner in 2014. He was promoted to COO in 2015 and held the role until 2017, when he left to run Applied Intuition.
Younis has invested personally for more than a decade. On a listing in Mercury's investor database, he says he has invested in over a hundred companies as an angel. He also says he was the largest pre-seed investor in Mercury. That figure is self-reported and undated.
Database counts differ. Crunchbase data used by Lounge shows 19 investments, 0 lead investments, 0 exits and 0 companies founded. Other trackers list higher totals, and PitchBook shows 45 investments. Treat any single number as approximate.
Beyond angel checks, PitchBook lists him as a board member at Commure and Blackshark.ai, and as an advisor to Liquid 2 Ventures, Xoogler Ventures and Venture Highway. Crunchbase lists advisor roles at Infinitus Systems, Verbling and Readyly.
Crunchbase data used by Lounge shows 11 AI investments since 2023. The AI portfolio includes Carvis.AI, Catalyx, EzDubs, Comulate, Bench IQ, Bluenote Health, Phonic, Resemble AI, Odyssey and Dryft.
PitchBook dates several of these deals. They include Bluenote AI (December 2024), EzDubs (December 2024, seed round), Comulate (February 2025), Phonic (April 2025), Catalyx Space (July 2025) and Dryft AI (November 2025, seed round). Tracxn reports that Phonic's seed round was $4M, with co-investors including Lux Capital. Crunchbase shows Odyssey's Series B as his latest investment.
Outside the Crunchbase AI list, PitchBook and Tracxn also show Convoke (August 2025), July AI (August 2025) and AIM Intelligent Machines (June 2025). These are not counted in the Crunchbase AI figure above.
On his Mercury investor database listing, Younis describes himself as stage and focus area agnostic and says he invests if he likes the company. The listing gives stages from pre-seed and seed through Series A, Series B and beyond. It gives geography as global and US/Canada, and a check range of $50K to $100K. Another directory, Evalyze, lists $50K to $250K, but that range comes from a third party and is not confirmed by him.
His recent deals lean toward AI software for business use: voice, financial and healthcare software, legal technology, and some hardware and aerospace. He also runs a physical AI company, so deep-tech and machine-intelligence founders are a natural fit. He has described the next phase of AI as playing out in physical industries such as mining, farming, construction and trucking.
I found no public statement that he leads rounds, and Crunchbase shows 0 lead investments. Founders should expect a participating angel check rather than a lead.
- Mercury: banking platform for startups. He says he was its largest pre-seed investor.
- Odyssey: listed by Crunchbase as his latest investment, a Series B.
- Phonic: seed round in April 2025, which Tracxn reports at $4M.
- Comulate: financial software company, invested February 2025.
- EzDubs: seed round, December 2024.
- Bluenote Health (Bluenote AI): early-stage round, December 2024.
- Catalyx Space: aerospace and defense company, invested July 2025.
- Dryft AI: seed round, November 2025.
- Carvis.AI, Bench IQ and Resemble AI: listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio, with no investment dates found.
- Checkr and Blackshark.ai: earlier investments listed by Tracxn and Crunchbase.
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Qasar Younis has made 19 investments according to Crunchbase. 11 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Carvis.AI, Catalyx, EzDubs, Comulate and Bench IQ.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Qasar Younis
Who is Qasar Younis?
He is the co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a physical AI software company. Before that he was COO of Y Combinator and founded TalkBin, which Google acquired in 2011.
What check size does Qasar Younis write?
His Mercury investor database listing gives a range of $50K to $100K. Evalyze lists $50K to $250K, which is third-party data. He has not published a firm check size elsewhere that I found.
What stages does Qasar Younis invest in?
His Mercury listing says he invests from pre-seed and seed through Series A, Series B and beyond. He describes himself as stage and focus area agnostic.
Which AI startups has Qasar Younis backed?
Crunchbase lists Carvis.AI, Catalyx, EzDubs, Comulate, Bench IQ, Bluenote Health, Phonic, Resemble AI, Odyssey and Dryft. Lounge's Crunchbase data counts 11 AI investments since 2023.
Does Qasar Younis lead rounds?
Crunchbase shows 0 lead investments for him. Public listings describe him as an angel who writes individual checks.
How can founders contact Qasar Younis?
He is on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/qasar and on X as @qasar. His personal site is qy.co.
Is Qasar Younis an angel investor?
Yes. Qasar Younis invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 19 investments.
What AI companies has Qasar Younis invested in?
Qasar Younis's AI investments include Carvis.AI, Catalyx, EzDubs, Comulate, Bench IQ, Bluenote Health, Phonic and Resemble AI.
Where is Qasar Younis based?
Qasar Younis is based in Mountain View, United States.
How can founders reach Qasar Younis?
Founders on Lounge can see Qasar Younis's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Qasar Younis to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.