# Ali Sadat

> Ali Sadat, DDS, is the founder and CEO of Retrace, a San Francisco company applying artificial intelligence and payment infrastructure to dental insurance administration. His route to the company ran through afternoons in the back office of the dental practice where his mother worked, bioengineering studies at UC San Diego, dentistry and oral-sciences training at UCSF, and research in biomedical imaging. He founded Retrace in 2016 and has pursued a system in which claim information, benefit checks, and payments move with less delay and ambiguity.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Retrace
- **Organizations:** Retrace, University of California, San Francisco, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Raxar Corporation
- **Education:** Doctor of Dental Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering, University of California, San Diego, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship, University of California, San Diego
- **Known for:** Founded Retrace in 2016 and raised an $18 million Series A from investors including Intel Capital and SoftBank Ventures Asia., Named an Incisal Edge 40 Under 40 dentist in 2022., Named as an inventor on Retrace patents covering AI-based dental image-to-text generation and dental image synthesis.

## Career timeline

- **2011–2013** — Worked as a graduate research student at the University of California, San Francisco.
- **2014** — Earned a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from UCSF.
- **2014–2015** — Held a postdoctoral graduate research role at UCSF; Retrace also describes prior clinical and research appointments at UCSF and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
- **2014–2016** — Served as senior vice president and a member of the founding team at Raxar Corporation.
- **2016** — Founded Retrace in San Francisco with initial backing from friends and family.
- **2019** — Retrace closed an $18 million Series A led by Intel Capital, with SoftBank Ventures Asia participating.
- **2022** — Named an Incisal Edge 40 Under 40 dentist; listed as an inventor on granted Retrace patents for AI-based dental image systems.
- **2025** — Listed as a contributor, representing Retrace, to the review draft of proposed ADA Standard No. 1098 on quality assurance for dental CBCT systems.

## Achievements

- Founded Retrace in 2016 and raised an $18 million Series A from investors including Intel Capital and SoftBank Ventures Asia.
- Named an Incisal Edge 40 Under 40 dentist in 2022.
- Named as an inventor on Retrace patents covering AI-based dental image-to-text generation and dental image synthesis.
- Helped build a company that reported more than 503 direct insurance connections by April 2022.
- Contributed to the review draft of proposed ADA Standard No. 1098 on quality assurance for dental CBCT systems in 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — In a public LinkedIn comment, Sadat emphasized the need to prove that medical-image processing preserves diagnostically meaningful information rather than merely removing apparent noise.
- **2025-10** — Was listed as a Retrace representative among contributors to the AIP review draft of proposed ADA Standard No. 1098 on dental CBCT quality assurance.
- **2022-11** — Joined a UCSF Alumni panel on AI, digital dentistry and the future of oral-health delivery.
- **2022-04** — Received Incisal Edge 40 Under 40 recognition.

## Links

- Website: https://retrace.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-sadat-7591939a

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ali-sadat
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-17