# Rujul Zaparde

> Rujul Zaparde is the co-founder and CEO of Zip, the $2.2 billion AI platform for enterprise procurement trusted by OpenAI, Anthropic, Snowflake, and hundreds of leading enterprises. A serial entrepreneur who dropped out of Harvard at 17 to co-found FlightCar (acquired by Mercedes-Benz in 2016), he later joined Airbnb as a product manager and served as a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator before launching Zip in 2020. Under his leadership, Zip has raised $371 million in funding, processes over $107 billion in spend, and manages 3.9 million suppliers, while enabling over $4.4 billion in customer savings. He also co-founded Drinking Water for India, building 50+ wells serving 100,000+ people.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Zip
- **Organizations:** Zip, Y Combinator, FlightCar, Drinking Water for India, Airbnb
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Dropped out, Harvard University
- **Known for:** Co-founded FlightCar at age 17 and grew it to 180+ employees before Mercedes-Benz acquisition in 2016, Built Zip to $2.2B valuation in under 4 years, Raised $190M Series D - the largest investment in procurement technology in over two decades

## Career timeline

- **2012** — Dropped out of Harvard at age 17 to co-found FlightCar, a peer-to-peer car sharing platform offering free airport parking
- **2013** — FlightCar accepted into Y Combinator (W13 batch); raised over $40 million in venture capital
- **2016** — FlightCar acquired by Mercedes-Benz; company had grown to 180+ employees across 17 locations
- **2017-2019** — Joined Airbnb as Product Manager, leading the search product and platform teams; later served as Visiting Partner at Y Combinator
- **2020** — Co-founded Zip with Lu Cheng and Felix Meng; accepted into Y Combinator Summer 2020 batch
- **2022** — Zip reached $1.2B valuation; raised $43M Series B funding
- **2023** — Zip valuation rose to $1.5B; recognized in multiple industry reports as procurement platform leader
- **2024** — Zip raised $190M Series D led by BOND (largest procurement tech investment in 20+ years), valuation reached $2.2B; platform processing $107B+ in spend

## Achievements

- Co-founded FlightCar at age 17 and grew it to 180+ employees before Mercedes-Benz acquisition in 2016
- Built Zip to $2.2B valuation in under 4 years
- Raised $190M Series D - the largest investment in procurement technology in over two decades
- Zip platform processes over $107 billion in annual spend for enterprise customers
- Zip has enabled over $4.4 billion in customer savings
- Manages 3.9 million suppliers on the platform
- Co-founded Drinking Water for India nonprofit, building 50+ wells serving 100,000+ people
- Served as Visiting Partner at Y Combinator
- IDC MarketScape recognized Zip as category creator and leader in Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Spend Orchestration (2024)
- Zip customers include OpenAI, Anthropic, Snowflake, Sephora, Coinbase, Reddit, Canva, Databricks, Discover

## Latest updates

- **2024-10** — Zip raised $190M in Series D funding led by BOND, reaching a $2.2B valuation - the largest procurement tech investment in over 20 years
- **2024-09** — IDC MarketScape recognized Zip as category creator and leader in Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Spend Orchestration
- **2025-01** — Y Combinator highlighted Rujul as a model two-time founder, noting Zip's $370M raised and $2.2B valuation
- **2025-03** — Zip Forward 2025 conference featured Rujul Zaparde and Lu Cheng presenting on the future of AI-powered procurement

## Links

- Website: https://ziphq.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rujulz
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/rujulz

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/rujul-zaparde
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-11