# Manu Sharma

> Manu Sharma is the CEO and Co-founder of Labelbox, the leading AI data infrastructure platform that powers training data pipelines for frontier AI models. Born in Roorkee, India, he studied aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle and Stanford before building CoPilot at DroneDeploy and leading data analytics at Planet Labs. In 2018, he co-founded Labelbox with former colleagues Brian Rieger and Daniel Rasmuson, raising $188.9M through a Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Labelbox now serves as the command center for AI teams building and scaling production machine learning systems, from annotation and RLHF to evals and synthetic data generation.

- **Role:** CEO & Co-founder at Labelbox
- **Organizations:** Labelbox, DroneDeploy, Planet Labs, Ardulab (Infinity Aerospace), Nuovo Wind, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Stanford University
- **From:** Roorkee, India
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science, Aerospace Engineering, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Master of Science, Aerospace Engineering, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Labelbox in 2018, growing it to 470 employees and $188.9M raised by 2022, Raised $110M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in January 2022, Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, B Capital Group, Cathie Wood/ARK Invest

## Career timeline

- **pre-2013** — Received first computer at age 15; pursued aerospace engineering studies at Embry-Riddle; launched a camera to near space for under $200; co-founded Ardulab (open-source ISS research lab) and Nuovo Wind (renewable energy startup named one of world's 50 most promising startups)
- **2011** — Completed MS in Aerospace Engineering at Stanford
- **2013** — Joined DroneDeploy as one of its earliest engineers
- **2013-2017** — At DroneDeploy: designed and built CoPilot system for LTE-based drone flight over the internet; transitioned to Product Manager and co-created the DroneDeploy App Marketplace with Daniel Rasmuson
- **2017** — Joined Planet Labs to lead data analytics platform; developed computer vision products for satellite imagery of Earth's landmass
- **2018** — Co-founded Labelbox in March 2018 with Brian Rieger and Daniel Rasmuson (all former Boeing, DroneDeploy, and Planet Labs engineers)
- **2019** — Labelbox raised seed and Series A funding backed by Andreessen Horowitz and B Capital Group
- **2022** — Labelbox raised $110M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with Snowpoint Ventures, Databricks Ventures, B Capital, and ARK Invest's Cathie Wood participating; total funding reached $188.9M
- **2022-present** — Expanded Labelbox from annotation tooling to full frontier AI data infrastructure: RLHF, synthetic data, evals, and expert human review pipelines
- **2024-2025** — Positioned Labelbox as the 'data factory' for the post-training era, serving frontier AI labs and enterprises building on top of foundation models

## Achievements

- Co-founded Labelbox in 2018, growing it to 470 employees and $188.9M raised by 2022
- Raised $110M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in January 2022
- Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, B Capital Group, Cathie Wood/ARK Invest
- Built Labelbox into the leading AI training data and evaluation platform for frontier models
- Designed and built the CoPilot system at DroneDeploy - flying drones over the internet via LTE
- Co-created the DroneDeploy App Marketplace
- Founded Nuovo Wind, named one of the world's 50 most promising startups within a year
- Founded Ardulab (Infinity Aerospace) - an open-source research lab for ISS science experiments
- Launched a camera to near space using a balloon for under $200 during university
- Learned to fly under Dick Rutan - the aviator who flew Voyager on the first non-stop non-refueled circumnavigation of the world
- Angel investor in Replicate, LangChain, and Together.ai

## Latest updates

- **2025-05** — Labelbox continues to operate as a leading AI data platform focused on post-training data, RLHF, evals, and synthetic data generation for frontier AI models
- **2024** — Manu positioned Labelbox as a 'data factory' competing in the $100B post-training supremacy race, expanding services beyond labeling to full AI data lifecycle management
- **2022-01** — Led Labelbox's $110M Series D funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, bringing total funding to $188.9M

## Links

- Website: https://www.manuaero.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manuaero/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/manuaero
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/getlabelbox/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/manu-sharma
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-25