# Malinka Walaliyadde

> Malinka Walaliyadde is the co-founder and CEO of AKASA and a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Sharjah, he studied materials engineering at Cornell, founded its Engineering Career Fair Team and advised a prize-winning student engineering project before moving into venture investing and company building.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at AKASA
- **Organizations:** AKASA, Andreessen Horowitz, Cornell University, ECaFT, CU GEM, Deloitte, Counsyl, Corning
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science, Materials Engineering, Cornell University
- **Known for:** Forbes 2018 30 Under 30 honoree in Venture Capital., Senior undergraduate adviser on Cornell’s 2011 iGEM Best Manufacturing Project team., Co-founded and leads AKASA.

## Career timeline

- **2009** — Founded Cornell’s Engineering Career Fair Team (ECaFT).
- **2011** — Senior undergraduate adviser to Cornell’s iGEM Biofactory team, which won Best Manufacturing Project at the world championship.
- **2014** — Joined Andreessen Horowitz in February.
- **2017** — Participated in the a16z podcast The Taxonomy of Collective Knowledge; named to Forbes’ 2018 30 Under 30 Venture Capital list, published in November 2017.
- **2019** — Began tenure as CEO and co-founder of the company now known as AKASA.
- **2021** — Announced the AKASA brand and a $60 million Series B led by BOND.

## Achievements

- Forbes 2018 30 Under 30 honoree in Venture Capital.
- Senior undergraduate adviser on Cornell’s 2011 iGEM Best Manufacturing Project team.
- Co-founded and leads AKASA.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Named among Becker’s 2026 rising leaders under 40, as announced by AKASA on October 9.
- **2026-07** — Appeared in a discussion with Scott Becker, Manav Sevak and Venkat Mocherla about applying AI to complex operational work.
- **2026-03** — AKASA announced its sixth consecutive Great Place To Work certification.

## Links

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

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