# Dean Zimberg

> Dean Zimberg is the New York-based founder and CEO of Jolly, a company that connects employee work actions to redeemable rewards. A Lehigh financial engineering graduate and Cornell computer science master’s graduate, he previously worked at Tesla and Two Sigma. He founded the Lehigh FinTech Group as a student. Jolly announced a $16.5 million Series A in March 2025 led by former Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn and plans to acquire commerce infrastructure company Rye in September 2026.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Jolly
- **Organizations:** Jolly, Two Sigma, Tesla, Stifel Financial, Lehigh FinTech Group, Def Hacks
- **Education:** B.S., Financial Engineering, Lehigh University, M.Eng., Computer Science, Cornell University / Cornell Tech
- **Known for:** Founded Jolly in 2022., Founded the Lehigh FinTech Group., Led Jolly through its announced $16.5 million Series A in March 2025.

## Career timeline

- **2017** — Founded the Lehigh FinTech Group; the university newspaper dates the group’s start to 2017.
- **2018** — Participated in Lehigh’s Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center Startup Academy in San Francisco; Lehigh’s bulletin also records a website and portfolio company he founded during the program.
- **2018** — Vice president of Lehigh Consulting Group, according to its alumni roster.
- **2019** — Tesla FP&A and Business Operations intern, February-May, and Stifel Investment Banking Summer Analyst, June-August, as listed on his Merit profile.
- **2019** — Lehigh FinTech Group hosted LFGhacks, sponsored by Citi Ventures; co-contributed to a municipal bond blockchain presentation.
- **2020** — Graduated from Lehigh’s financial engineering program.
- **2021** — Earned Cornell M.Eng.; subsequently worked at Two Sigma before founding Jolly.
- **2022** — Founded Jolly; Crunchbase dates his CEO role to September 2022.
- **2025-03** — Jolly announced a $16.5 million Series A led by Zach Kirkhorn, who joined the board.
- **2026-09** — Jolly announced plans to acquire Rye on September 14.

## Achievements

- Founded Jolly in 2022.
- Founded the Lehigh FinTech Group.
- Led Jolly through its announced $16.5 million Series A in March 2025.
- Named to Lehigh’s Dean’s List in fall 2017, spring 2018, fall 2018 and fall 2019.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — On September 14, Jolly announced plans to acquire Rye and stated that it had served nearly 200,000 frontline workers across more than 100 employers.
- **2025-03** — Jolly announced a $16.5 million Series A led by Zach Kirkhorn on March 26.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanzimberg
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/deanzimberg

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dean-zimberg
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-25