# Pratap Ranade

> Pratap Ranade is the CEO and co-founder of Arena (Arena Physica), a New York startup building Atlas, an AI hardware engineer grounded in applied physics that helps semiconductor, aerospace, automotive, medical-device and defense companies design and test physical hardware. A Stanford and Columbia-trained physicist who left a PhD to join McKinsey, he previously co-founded Kimono Labs (acquired by Palantir) and led engineering and machine learning at Enigma. Arena raised a $30M Series B in April 2025 and counts AMD, Bausch & Lomb and Anduril among its partners.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Arena (Arena Physica)
- **Organizations:** Arena Physica, Kimono Labs, Palantir, Enigma, McKinsey & Company
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Physics, Stanford University, M.Phil. and M.S. in Physics (left PhD program), Columbia University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Kimono Labs (130,000 users, backed by Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Max Levchin, Y Combinator), acquired by Palantir, Built and launched Atlas, an AI hardware engineer used in semiconductors, aerospace, automotive, medical devices and defense, Raised a $30M Series B for Arena in April 2025 led by Initialized, Fifth Down Capital and Goldcrest Capital

## Career timeline

- **—** — Studied physics at Stanford (B.S.) and Columbia (M.Phil./M.S.), pursuing a PhD before leaving
- **—** — Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company
- **—** — Co-founded and served as CEO of Kimono Labs, an AI/data company with 130,000 users
- **—** — Kimono Labs acquired by Palantir; joined Palantir, where he met future co-founder Engin
- **—** — Led Engineering & Machine Learning at Enigma, rebuilding the team to ~75 and launching a flagship product
- **2020** — Co-founded Arena to apply machine learning to the physical world
- **2025** — Launched Atlas, an AI hardware engineer, and raised a $30M Series B
- **2025** — Rebranded toward Arena Physica with a mission of building electromagnetic superintelligence

## Achievements

- Co-founded Kimono Labs (130,000 users, backed by Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Max Levchin, Y Combinator), acquired by Palantir
- Built and launched Atlas, an AI hardware engineer used in semiconductors, aerospace, automotive, medical devices and defense
- Raised a $30M Series B for Arena in April 2025 led by Initialized, Fifth Down Capital and Goldcrest Capital
- Partnered with AMD (Radeon GPU testing), Bausch & Lomb, Anduril and Sivers Semiconductors
- Grew Arena to roughly 160 employees

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Announced Arena's $30M Series B and introduced Atlas, an AI hardware engineer used by semiconductor, aerospace, automotive, medical-device and defense companies.
- **2025-04** — Arena launched Atlas publicly to accelerate the rate of hardware innovation.
- **2025** — Introduced Arena Physica and Atlas RF Studio (beta), framing the mission as electromagnetic superintelligence.

## Links

- Website: https://arenaphysica.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pratap-ranade-7272829
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/PratapRanade

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/pratap-ranade
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-03