# Raylu

> Raylu is a New York-based AI company building an AI-native deal origination platform for private-market investors. It turns an investment thesis into a custom market map, enriched company intelligence, and verified founder outreach in minutes rather than weeks - work that traditionally takes analysts days. Used by 45+ funds representing over $500B in AUM, Raylu raised an $8M Series A in December 2025, bringing total funding to $12M.

- **Founded:** 2022
- **Headquarters:** New York, New York, United States
- **Founders:** Ali Dastjerdi (Co-Founder & CEO (former investor at Insight Partners)), Nathan Ondracek (Co-Founder & CTO (former AWS engineer)), Sam Ilkka (Co-Founder & COO (former AWS engineer))
- **Team size:** ~14 employees
- **Products:** Thesis-to-Market-Map, Target Intelligence, Automated Outreach, Agentic Research Chat, CRM Integration & Enrichment
- **Notable:** Raised $12M total ($4M seed + $8M Series A) by December 2025, 45+ funds and $500B+ AUM on the platform, Series A lead HighlandX was a power user before investing

## Products & services

- **Thesis-to-Market-Map** — Converts an investment thesis into a custom market landscape, surfacing 2.5x more actionable targets per map and identifying niche disruptors traditional databases miss.
- **Target Intelligence** — 360-degree company profiles with ~72 AI-generated data points per target, drawing on a database of 57M+ companies with cited, accuracy-checked research.
- **Automated Outreach** — Identifies verified decision-makers (95% CEO email match rate) and runs founder outreach that drives ~30% higher email response rates.
- **Agentic Research Chat** — A research interface the company describes as up to 1000x deeper than ChatGPT, with 97% claimed accuracy and citations for factual traceability.
- **CRM Integration & Enrichment** — Two-way sync and enrichment with deal-management systems like DealCloud, Affinity, and Salesforce.

## Achievements

- Raised $12M total ($4M seed + $8M Series A) by December 2025
- 45+ funds and $500B+ AUM on the platform
- Series A lead HighlandX was a power user before investing
- Backed by founders of Dropbox, DataRobot/Algorithmia, and Pylon
- Claims 2.5x more relevant targets and 1000x deeper research than ChatGPT

## Latest updates

- **2025-12** — Closed $8M Series A led by HighlandX, bringing total funding to $12M.
- **2025-12** — Press coverage of the three-founder 'one beer if it collapses' pact story.

## Links

- Website: https://raylu.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/raylu-ai

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/raylu
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-07