# Raj Bains

> Raj Bains is the Founder and CEO of Prophecy, a Palo Alto-based low-code data engineering platform that lets analysts and engineers build Apache Spark pipelines visually - generating real, production-grade code to Git. With a background spanning compiler engineering at NVIDIA (where he was a founding CUDA team engineer), product management at Hortonworks through its IPO, and a patent for designing a language for insurance contracts, Bains launched Prophecy in 2017 to solve a problem he had watched the data industry ignore for two decades: making data transformation fast and accessible for everyone, not just Spark specialists. The company has raised $114M+ from Insight Partners, SignalFire, JPMorgan, and HSBC, and counts Fortune 50 enterprises including HSBC, JP Morgan, Microsoft, and Toyota among its customers.

- **Role:** Founder CEO at Prophecy
- **Organizations:** Prophecy, Hortonworks, NVIDIA, Clustrix, Microsoft, 3Dlabs
- **From:** India (north of Delhi)
- **Nationality:** American (Indian-born)
- **Education:** MS in Computer Science, Colorado State University, Startup Accelerator Program, UC Berkeley SkyDeck, Executive Product Management Program, UC Berkeley
- **Known for:** Founded Prophecy and grew it to 170+ employees serving Fortune 50 companies, Raised over $114M in total funding from top-tier investors including Insight Partners, SignalFire, JPMorgan, and HSBC, Achieved 3.5X revenue growth in FY2024 with 160% net revenue retention

## Career timeline

- **2004** — Compiler Developer at 3Dlabs - JIT optimization, graphics features
- **2006** — Software Development Engineer at Microsoft - Visual Studio compiler design and Microsoft Research
- **~2008** — Founding engineer (compiler) at NVIDIA CUDA team - developed multiple patentable algorithms
- **2012** — Director of Products at Clustrix - engineering, product marketing, and product management
- **2014** — Product Manager for Apache Hive at Hortonworks through its IPO
- **2017** — Founded Prophecy (initially called Prophecy.io)
- **2021** — Raised $6.75M Series A from SignalFire and Ross Mason (MuleSoft founder)
- **2022** — Raised $25M led by Insight Partners
- **2023** — Raised $35M Series B; launched Generative AI platform for data transformation; Herb Cunitz joined board
- **2025** — Raised $47M Series B extension led by Smith Point Capital with HSBC as investor-customer; launched Prophecy v4 with AI agents

## Achievements

- Founded Prophecy and grew it to 170+ employees serving Fortune 50 companies
- Raised over $114M in total funding from top-tier investors including Insight Partners, SignalFire, JPMorgan, and HSBC
- Achieved 3.5X revenue growth in FY2024 with 160% net revenue retention
- Pioneered low-code visual data transformation that generates production-ready Apache Spark code
- Founding engineer on NVIDIA's CUDA compiler team with multiple patented algorithms
- Held patent for designing a language for insurance contracts
- Led Prophecy to win Fortune 50 enterprise customers including HSBC, JP Morgan, Microsoft, Toyota, and Amgen
- Secured HSBC as both strategic investor and customer in 2025
- Led Hortonworks product team for Apache Hive through the company's IPO

## Latest updates

- **2025-01** — Prophecy raised $47M Series B extension led by Smith Point Capital; HSBC joined as strategic investor and customer
- **2025-01** — Launched Prophecy v4 featuring AI agents for visual data prep and analysis
- **2024-06** — Raj Bains spoke at Databricks Data + AI Summit 2024 on Data Transformation Copilot
- **2023-10** — Raised $35M Series B; Herb Cunitz (former Hortonworks president) joined as board member
- **2023-10** — Elena Zislin (J.P. Morgan managing director) joined as board observer

## Links

- Website: https://www.prophecy.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raj-bains-b837a46/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/_raj_bains
- GitHub: https://github.com/raj-bains

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/raj-bains
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-23