# Oliver Gunasekara

> Oliver Gunasekara is a San Jose-based technology entrepreneur and the co-founder and former CEO of Impossible Metals. After leading mobile business development and corporate development at Arm, he co-founded cloud video-encoding company NGCodec, acquired by Xilinx in 2019. In 2020 he founded Impossible Metals to develop autonomous underwater robots for selective seabed-nodule collection. Granger Whitelaw succeeded him as CEO in May 2026.

- **Role:** Co-Founder at Impossible Metals; former CEO (succeeded in May 2026)
- **Organizations:** Impossible Metals, NGCodec, Arm, MIPI Alliance, Viridian Biometals
- **Nationality:** American (naturalized; self-described in April 2025 congressional testimony)
- **Education:** Bachelor’s degree with honours in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Greenwich, Mini-MBA (executive programme), AeA/Executive Institute, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Winter 2022 accelerator, Impossible Metals, Y Combinator
- **Known for:** Led mobile business development during Arm’s expansion in mobile processors., Championed Arm’s 2006 acquisition of Falanx, whose technology became Mali graphics., Co-founded NGCodec, raised more than $15 million and secured Amazon/Twitch business before the 2019 Xilinx acquisition.

## Career timeline

- **1994** — Joined Arm, then approximately 60 employees, leading mobile business development.
- **2003** — Helped found the nonprofit MIPI Alliance.
- **2006** — Championed Arm’s acquisition of Falanx as VP of Corporate Business Development and M&A.
- **2012** — Co-founded NGCodec.
- **2014** — Following a pivot toward cloud encoding, NGCodec raised a $3 million seed round in November.
- **2018** — NGCodec won Twitch as a customer.
- **2019** — Xilinx acquired NGCodec in July.
- **2020** — Founded Impossible Metals after rethinking his post-exit plans.
- **2022** — Impossible Metals participated in Y Combinator Winter 2022.
- **2025** — Testified before the House Natural Resources Committee on April 29.
- **2026** — Testified again in January; succeeded as CEO by Granger Whitelaw in May.

## Achievements

- Led mobile business development during Arm’s expansion in mobile processors.
- Championed Arm’s 2006 acquisition of Falanx, whose technology became Mali graphics.
- Co-founded NGCodec, raised more than $15 million and secured Amazon/Twitch business before the 2019 Xilinx acquisition.
- Reported a fivefold return for NGCodec’s early investors in his 2020 summit presentation.
- Founded Impossible Metals and recruited co-founders to develop selective autonomous seabed collection.
- Co-founded MIPI Alliance and Viridian Biometals, as recorded in his congressional biography.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Impossible Metals released footage of Eureka II autonomously aligning and attaching for offshore recovery near Halifax.
- **2026-07** — Impossible Metals announced a non-binding collaboration framework with Deep Sea Minerals Corp., conditional on licences and further agreements.
- **2026-05** — A company announcement named Granger Whitelaw CEO, succeeding founder Oliver Gunasekara.
- **2026-02** — Published an article on the requirements for resilient critical-metal supply chains.
- **2026-01** — Testified at a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing on regulatory barriers to deep-sea mining.

## Links

- Website: https://impossiblemetals.com/about/leadership/oliver-gunesekara/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunasekara
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/OlyG

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/oliver-gunasekara
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21