KIMESHAN NAIDOO · CTO / ENGINEERING LEADER / TECH ENTREPRENEUR · FORBES 30 UNDER 30
I build hard things.
And the teams that ship them.
I grew up in Tongaat, a tiny sugarcane-farming town in South Africa. After a master's in computer science in London, I co-founded Unibuddy and built it as CTO into one of the fastest-growing edtech companies in the world — a 50-engineer team across the UK, India and the US, 4 million users and $32 million raised. I also built Familiar, an AI-native platform for hospitality, live at hundreds of hotels across the world. I invest in founders doing hard things in AI and tech.
FIG. 01 — K. NAIDOO
Founded
COMPANIES + FUNDS
Unibuddy
Co-founded in London and scaled as CTO to a 50-engineer team and 120+ people across the UK, India and the US — one of the fastest-growing edtech companies in the world.
Familiar
AI-native marketing platform for the hospitality industry, built with a deliberately small senior team.
Vejayanthran Fund
Funding aspiring teachers and education leaders in South Africa.
Leadership
BOARDS + ADVISORY
Other Apps I've Built
APPS + SIDE PROJECTS
Ashinaga Scholar & Staff Platform
A responsive web app Ashinaga scholars and staff use to manage scholarships and support students.
Time Since
A fun app tracking how long it's been since a football club last won a given trophy.
KickStake
An app for running tournament sweepstakes with family and friends.
Portfolio
12 INVESTMENTS · AI + TECH — SINCE 2021Investing since 2021, from pre-seed cheques to secondaries. Two filters: products I would be proud of having built myself as a product engineer, and strong distribution and network moats.
Payments infrastructure for the internet.
Reusable rockets and the Starlink constellation.
Frontier AI research and deployment.
Global payments and shopping network.
The enterprise data and AI platform.
GPU cloud for AI training and inference.
Autonomous AI pilots for defense.
AI for aerospace and industrial robotics.
Robotics AI.
Space logistics.
Enterprise agtech AI for farmers.
Consumer personal finance app.
Positions held directly or through fund vehicles. Stages shown at entry. Multiples are approximate gross uplifts, marked only to priced events (rounds, tenders, listings). Active = still held.
Raising?
If you're building something exceptional, I'd love to take a look at your deck.
Work With Me
ADVISORY + SPEAKING
ON STAGE — PODIM · BUILDERS STAGE
Advisory & Speaking
I speak about AI-native building, scaling engineering teams from first hire to fifty, and what actually happens inside venture-backed companies. Advisory sessions for startups and scale-ups are $500/hour. Book a free 15-minute intro call first to see if we're a fit.