# João Diogo Falcão

> João Diogo 'JD' Falcão is the CEO and co-founder of AiFi Inc., the San Francisco-based company building the world's largest autonomous retail network. A PhD from Carnegie Mellon and Master's from Cornell in Robotics, JD spent years shaping AiFi's core technology as CTO before stepping up as Chief Executive in September 2025. Under his and the team's leadership, AiFi has deployed 300+ camera-only autonomous stores globally, processes over 90 petabytes of spatial data annually, and counts Microsoft, ALDI, and 7-Eleven among its partners. His central thesis: the physical world deserves to be as queryable as the internet.

- **Role:** Chief Executive Officer at AiFi Inc.
- **Organizations:** AiFi Inc., AFM Tech, Carnegie Mellon University, Xilinx
- **Nationality:** Portuguese
- **Education:** PhD, Cyber-Physical Systems, Carnegie Mellon University, Master of Engineering, Robotics, Cornell University, Bachelor's Degree, Instituto Superior Técnico
- **Known for:** Co-founded AiFi Inc., which grew to operate the world's largest network of camera-only autonomous stores (300+), Built AiFi's proprietary spatial AI platform processing over 90 petabytes of data annually, Led technology partnerships with Microsoft, ALDI, 7-Eleven, and major sports venues including Intuit Dome

## Career timeline

- **pre-2017** — Research Engineer Intern at Xilinx, developing Computer Vision Algorithms
- **pre-2017** — Research Assistant at Carnegie Mellon University during PhD studies
- **pre-2017** — Co-founder and CTO of AFM Tech, a facilities maintenance technology company serving ExxonMobil and the Angolan Government
- **2017** — Joined AiFi as Software Engineer and Technology Lead (November 2017)
- **2018-2020** — Progressed to Director of Engineering at AiFi
- **2020-2022** — Became VP of Engineering at AiFi, scaling the platform globally
- **2022** — Promoted to Chief Technology Officer at AiFi
- **2024** — Won Progressive Grocer GenNext Award for innovation in retail technology
- **2024** — Created the first AutoCheckout Competition in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon and Stanford professors
- **2025** — Appointed Chief Executive Officer of AiFi Inc. (September 2025), succeeding Steve Carlin
- **2026** — AiFi powers checkout-free stores at Arena Milano for Winter Olympics 2026

## Achievements

- Co-founded AiFi Inc., which grew to operate the world's largest network of camera-only autonomous stores (300+)
- Built AiFi's proprietary spatial AI platform processing over 90 petabytes of data annually
- Led technology partnerships with Microsoft, ALDI, 7-Eleven, and major sports venues including Intuit Dome
- Won 2024 Progressive Grocer GenNext Award
- Created the first AutoCheckout Competition in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford professors
- Guided AiFi through over $105M in total funding
- Developed computer vision AI that works in non-standardized, real-world retail environments

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Zippin and AiFi expanded their autonomous store presence partnership
- **2026-01** — AiFi powers checkout-free stores at Arena Milano for Winter Olympics 2026
- **2025-10** — 7-Eleven ramping up AiFi-powered checkout-free stores across the US
- **2025-09** — João Diogo Falcão officially appointed CEO of AiFi Inc., succeeding Steve Carlin who became Venture Partner at Translink Capital
- **2024-07** — AiFi raised $6.7M in latest funding round
- **2024-01** — Won Progressive Grocer GenNext Award

## Links

- Website: https://aifi.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaodfalcao/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/joao-falcao
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-16