Srinivas Narayanan
About Srinivas Narayanan
Narayanan grew up in Chennai. He holds a B.Tech in computer science from IIT Madras (1995) and an MS in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1996). He began his career as a software engineer at IBM's Almaden Research Center. He was later a founder or founding engineer at Viralizr and at Tavant.
He joined Facebook (now Meta) in 2008 and spent over a decade there. His teams covered consumer products, Oculus and applied AI. He then worked briefly with General Catalyst on AI-related projects.
In April 2023 he joined OpenAI as VP of Engineering and led the Applied Engineering team, which then had about 40 engineers. That group worked on ChatGPT, the developer API platform and supporting infrastructure. In September 2025 he became CTO of B2B Applications. Press reports say he announced his departure on April 17, 2026, and plans to return to India for a time to be with his parents.
Crunchbase lists four personal investments for Narayanan, but only the Synthefy seed round is visible on the public page. His two confirmed 2026 rounds are Architect Labs in June and Synthefy in August. Both came shortly after he left OpenAI. Both were seed rounds led by institutional funds, with Narayanan taking part as an individual investor.
Architect Labs, a Palo Alto chip design startup, announced a $24M seed round on June 18, 2026. Kindred Ventures led it. Narayanan was named among the participating individuals.
Synthefy builds foundation models for structured and numerical data. It announced a $6.5M seed round on August 18, 2026, led by Wing Venture Capital. Narayanan was one of three named angels. The others were Aparna Chennapragada and Manohar Paluri.
His public investments so far are seed-stage AI companies. One builds AI for semiconductor design and the other builds models for structured data. He has not published a check size, a fund or a thesis, and no statement of what he looks for was found. Founders with a technical product, especially in applied AI or AI infrastructure, are the closest match to his operating background. This is an inference from his career, not something he has said.
- Architect Labs: AI system for designing and verifying custom chips; $24M seed led by Kindred Ventures, announced June 2026.
- Synthefy: foundation models for structured data such as transactions and sensor readings; $6.5M seed led by Wing Venture Capital, announced August 2026.
- crunchbase.com/person/srinivas-narayanan
- forbesindia.com/article/news/meet-srinivas-narayanan-openais-indianori
- storyboard18.com/brand-makers/who-is-srinivas-narayanan-openai-tech-le
- luma.com/SrinivasOpenAI
- siliconangle.com/2026/06/18/architect-labs-nabs-24m-speed-chip-design-
- kindredventures.com/announcement/architect-labs-democratizing-custom-c
- finsmes.com/2026/08/synthefy-raises-6-5m-in-seed-funding.html
- thesaasnews.com/news/synthefy-raises-6-5m-seed
Investing activity
Srinivas Narayanan appears in 2 AI deals tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $24M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $24M. The most recent are Synthefy (Seed, $6.5M, Aug 2026) and Architect (Seed, $24M, Jun 2026).
Srinivas Narayanan most often invests alongside Wing Venture Capital, AI at Meta Superintelligence Labs, Lightscape Partners and Canonical, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Srinivas Narayanan
Is Srinivas Narayanan an angel investor in AI startups?
Yes. He was named as a participating investor in the Architect Labs $24M seed round (June 2026) and the Synthefy $6.5M seed round (August 2026).
What is Srinivas Narayanan's background?
He was CTO of B2B Applications at OpenAI and earlier VP of Engineering there, starting in April 2023. Before that he spent over a decade at Meta. He studied at IIT Madras and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
What check size does Srinivas Narayanan write?
It is not public. None of the announcements for his deals state what he invested.
What stage does Srinivas Narayanan invest in?
His two known AI investments are both seed rounds. He has not published a formal stage preference.
How can founders contact Srinivas Narayanan?
His LinkedIn profile is the listed channel. He is also on X as @snsf, according to Crunchbase. He has not published a pitch process.
Is Srinivas Narayanan an angel investor?
Yes. Srinivas Narayanan invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Srinivas Narayanan invested in?
Srinivas Narayanan's AI investments include Synthefy and Architect. The 2 rounds on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Srinivas Narayanan invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Srinivas Narayanan has invested at Seed, with a median round of $24M.
Who does Srinivas Narayanan co-invest with?
Srinivas Narayanan's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Wing Venture Capital (1 deal), AI at Meta Superintelligence Labs (1 deal), Lightscape Partners (1 deal), Canonical (1 deal) and Samsung Next (1 deal).
How can founders reach Srinivas Narayanan?
Founders on Lounge can see Srinivas Narayanan'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 Srinivas Narayanan to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.