Yaser Sheikh
About Yaser Sheikh
Yaser Sheikh is a Consulting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. His personal site says he was a Vice President at Meta from 2015 to 2025. There he founded the Meta Reality Lab in Pittsburgh and led the development and productization of Codec Avatars, a system for real-time, photorealistic telepresence.
He is also known in computer vision research. A Sooth Labs investor write-up describes him as the author of OpenPose and Panoptic Studio, both widely used in AI work on human motion.
He is now CEO of Sooth Labs, a Pittsburgh AI company. Press coverage describes its team as coming from Meta AI and Carnegie Mellon, with Ruslan Salakhutdinov as co-founder. Reports say it is raising about $50 million at a valuation of around $335 million in a round led by Felicis Ventures.
Sheikh's public angel record is thin. The only angel investment we found is his participation in the Noetive seed round announced in September 2026. Crunchbase and CB Insights both list him as an investor in that round. We found no public statements from him about angel investing, and no disclosed check sizes or fund vehicles.
Noetive emerged from stealth on September 16, 2026 with a $41 million seed round led by Eclipse. The company describes itself as an AI NeoLab building the intelligence of record for the physical economy. Its product combines a self-improving AI "brain" with a multi-modal sensing pod.
The press release lists Sheikh among the individual investors. He is described there as a Carnegie Mellon professor and founding director of Meta Reality Labs Pittsburgh. Other individual backers include Andrew Bosworth, Ahmad Al-Dahle, Matt Rogers and Mike Schroepfer.
With one public deal, there is not enough data to state a stage or sector pattern. Noetive is a seed-stage AI company working on physical operations and industrial settings, which fits Sheikh's research background in machine perception and prediction. His site describes his work as building systems that let machines perceive and predict. Geography and check size are not public.
- Noetive: AI company building an intelligence of record for physical operations. Sheikh took part in its $41M seed round, announced September 2026 and led by Eclipse.
- noetive.ai/news/noetive-emerges-from-stealth-with-41-million-seed
- finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/noetive-emerges-stealth-41-mi
- cbinsights.com/investor/incite-ventures
- cs.cmu.edu/~yaser
- ardent.vc/blog-posts/why-we-invested-sooth-labs
- kucoin.com/news/flash/sooth-labs-founded-by-former-meta-executives-rai
- bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-22/ai-pioneers-back-startup-buildi
- x.com/subail?lang=en
Investing activity
Yaser Sheikh appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $41M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $41M. The most recent is Noetive (Seed, $41M, Sep 2026).
Yaser Sheikh most often invests alongside Eclipse, The Westly Group, Zach Frankel and Incite Ventures, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Yaser Sheikh
Does Yaser Sheikh invest as an angel in AI startups?
Yes, at least once publicly. He is listed among the individual investors in Noetive's $41M seed round, announced in September 2026. We found no other disclosed angel investments.
What is Yaser Sheikh's angel check size?
It is not public. We found no disclosed check size or fund size.
Who is Yaser Sheikh?
He is a Consulting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a former Meta VP who founded Meta Reality Lab Pittsburgh. He is CEO of Sooth Labs.
What stage and sectors does Yaser Sheikh back?
His one known angel deal is a seed round in Noetive, an AI company focused on the physical economy. That is too little to define a stage or sector thesis.
How should founders approach Yaser Sheikh about a pitch?
He has not published a pitch process. A relevant background is machine perception, vision or prediction, which matches his research and operating work. Warm introductions through the Carnegie Mellon or Meta research community may be the most natural route.
Is Yaser Sheikh an angel investor?
Yes. Yaser Sheikh invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Yaser Sheikh invested in?
Yaser Sheikh's AI investments include Noetive. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Yaser Sheikh invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Yaser Sheikh has invested at Seed, with a median round of $41M.
Who does Yaser Sheikh co-invest with?
Yaser Sheikh's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Eclipse (1 deal), The Westly Group (1 deal), Zach Frankel (1 deal), Incite Ventures (1 deal) and Liquid 2 Ventures (1 deal).
How can founders reach Yaser Sheikh?
Founders on Lounge can see Yaser Sheikh'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 Yaser Sheikh to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.