# Feng Niu

> Feng Niu is CEO and co-founder of Evidently, a computer scientist and serial entrepreneur who previously co-founded Alation and Lattice Data. He earned his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012 and co-authored Hogwild!, the 2011 machine-learning paper that received the 2020 NeurIPS Test of Time Award. Apple acquired Lattice Data in 2017.

- **Role:** CEO and co-founder at Evidently
- **Organizations:** Evidently, Alation, Lattice Data, Apple, Google, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- **Education:** BE in Computer Science, Tsinghua University, PhD in Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- **Known for:** Co-author of the 2020 NeurIPS Test of Time Award-winning paper Hogwild! (published 2011)., Co-founded Alation., Co-founded Lattice Data, acquired by Apple in 2017.

## Career timeline

- **2008** — Completed a BE in Computer Science at Tsinghua University.
- **2011** — Co-authored Hogwild! with Benjamin Recht, Christopher Ré and Stephen Wright, and Tuffy with Christopher Ré, AnHai Doan and Jude Shavlik.
- **2012** — Earned a PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; the department records Google as his initial placement.
- **2012** — Co-founded Alation with Satyen Sangani, Aaron Kalb and Venky Ganti. Alation dates its founding to 2012.
- **2012** — Co-authored work on DeepDive and the ACL paper Big Data versus the Crowd.
- **2015** — Co-founded Lattice Data, which commercialized work on unstructured data.
- **2017** — Apple acquired Lattice Data.
- **2020** — Hogwild! received the NeurIPS Test of Time Award.
- **2024** — As CEO, led Evidently at the time of its December 10 announcement of a $15 million Series A led by DN Capital.
- **2026** — Listed as CEO and co-founder of Evidently on its summit page and in a September 15 Equilar role verification.

## Achievements

- Co-author of the 2020 NeurIPS Test of Time Award-winning paper Hogwild! (published 2011).
- Co-founded Alation.
- Co-founded Lattice Data, acquired by Apple in 2017.
- Co-authored Tuffy and DeepDive research on scalable statistical inference and knowledge-base construction.
- Led Evidently when it announced a $15 million Series A in December 2024.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Equilar records a September 15 verification of Niu as CEO and co-founder of Evidently.
- **2024-12** — Evidently announced a $15 million Series A on December 10, led by DN Capital with participation from FRAMEWORK, Clear Ventures, Fellows Fund and existing investors.

## Links

- Website: https://www.evidently.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/feng-niu-62475a44/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/feng-niu
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-22