Neha Narkhede | |
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![]() Narkhede speaking at dotScale 2017 | |
Born | 1984or1985(age 39–40) Pune, Maharashtra, India |
Nationality | American |
Education | Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT), University of Pune Georgia Tech |
Neha Narkhede (born 1984or1985 [1] ) is an American technology entrepreneur and the co-founder and former CTO of Confluent, a streaming data technology company. She co-created the open source software platform Apache Kafka. Narkhede now serves as a board member of Confluent. She co-founded risk detection platform developer, Oscilar, in 2021, where she is the CEO. In 2020, she was listed as one of America’s Self-Made Women by Forbes . [2]
Narkhede was raised in Pune, Maharashtra and went to the Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT), University of Pune, where she gained a Bachelor of Science in engineering. In 2007, she received a masters in technology from Georgia Tech. [3]
After obtaining her Master's degree, Narkhede started her first job at Oracle as a software engineer. [4] After Oracle, she worked as the lead of streams infrastructure at LinkedIn. [4] [5]
While working at LinkedIn in 2011, Narkhede created the Platform Apache Kafka, along with Jun Rao and Jay Kreps. [2] They came up with the idea while on a project at the company and developed Kafka as an open source Platform. [6] In 2014 she founded Confluent, a Palo Alto based startup, along with Rao and Kreps and decided to start Confluent as a B2B infrastructure company. [7]
In 2017 she co-authored Kafka: The Definitive Guide along with Gwen Shapira and Todd Palino which is about the technology that created Kafka. [5]
She was the CTO of Confluent and later also took upon the role of chief product officer until 2020, [7] but remained as a board member. [8]
She and her team at Confluent raised $125 million in 2019, bringing its total funding to $206 million in 2019. [3] And in April 2020, the company raised $250 million bringing its total funding to $456 million. [2]
Confluent filed for an initial public offering on June 1, 2021, and was valued at $4.5 billion. [8] Companies such as Goldman Sachs, Netflix and Uber use the platform for data driven purposes. [9]
Narkhede and her husband co-founded Oscilar in 2021, which develops a real-time artificial intelligence-based platform to help decrease the risks involved with online transactions. The company came out of stealth mode two years later, with Narkhede as CEO. [1]
In 2017, MIT Technology Review listed her as one of the innovators under 35. [10] In the following year Narkhede was listed as one of America's and the world's top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes [2] and she won the Oracle Groundbreaker Award at the Oracle Code One conference in San Francisco. [11] In October 2020, Narkhede was listed #33 on the list of "America's Self Made Women" by Forbes. [2] In 2022, Narkhede received the Abie Award for Technology Entrepreneurship Award Winner at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing from Anitab. [12]
Narkhede is married to Sachin Kulkarni, an engineering executive, with whom she has a son. [1]