Manu Jayawardana is an AI founder and systems builder focused on helping companies apply AI in the real world.

He previously built and exited Rise AI, a fintech platform used by 35,000+ investors, and is the co-founder of Snapdrum, an AI consultancy helping organizations deploy AI across growth, operations, and product workflows.

Through Snapdrum programs and courses, Manu and his team have trained 5,000+ professionals worldwide in practical AI systems, automation, and AI-driven growth.

Manu’s work focuses on turning AI from experimentation into real systems that drive revenue, efficiency, and competitive advantage.

Currently, Manu is the Co-Founder & CEO of Krybe, an AI voice agent startup in London transforming how businesses automate customer interactions. His experience spans fundraising, scaling products, and leading teams to deliver production-grade AI solutions adopted globally.

Career highlights

• Co-Founder of Snapdrum — builds production-ready AI systems for Fortune 500s, YC startups, and global Series A–C companies.
• Exited Founder of Rise AI — created an AI investment copilot used by 35,000+ users worldwide.
• Co-Founder of Krybe — ultra-realistic voice AI platform with 1000+ users and part of the NVIDIA Inception Program.
• Creator of the #1 ranked Investment GPT on the OpenAI Store with 30,000+ users.
• Built and scaled 10+ companies across AI, SaaS, analytics, and EdTech, including a B2B analytics product that grew 10× in one year.
• Former Entrepreneur First Unlock Fellow, selected for high-potential AI founders.

Aki Wijesundara is an AI leader with a PhD in Machine Learning and extensive experience mentoring startups at Google’s AI Accelerator. With a career spanning both research and applied AI, Aki has taught 5,000+ students worldwide how to design and deploy production-ready AI systems.

He has worked across cutting-edge areas of applied AI, from LangChain and RAG pipelines to observability and large-scale deployment. As a researcher and educator, Aki bridges the gap between theory and practice, making complex systems approachable and actionable for engineers, founders, and product leaders.

Aki is also a frequent speaker and advisor to organizations adopting AI, helping them transition from experimentation to production at scale.

Career Highlights

• Ex–Google AI Accelerator researcher focused on responsible AI and applied ML.
• PhD in AI & Cognitive Systems with published research across top universities.
• Former researcher with teams affiliated with MIT, University of Oxford, & King’s College London.
• Co-founder of Snapdrum — delivered AI systems for finance, education, and healthcare.
• Built and deployed AI product pipelines used by PMs, startups, and enterprise teams.
• Instructor for multiple AI builder programs, helping 500+ professionals ship AI features fast.