# Ryan Janssen

> Ryan Janssen is the Co-founder and CEO of Zenlytic, a New York-based AI-powered business intelligence platform that lets non-technical users query data in plain English. A former McKinsey consultant and 6-year venture capital investor with advanced degrees from Harvard and Oxford, Ryan co-founded Zenlytic in 2020 alongside CTO Paul Blankley after spotting a gap: companies had modern data infrastructure but no accessible way to use it. Zenlytic has raised $15.4M including a $9M Series A in 2024 led by M13, and its AI analyst Zoe can now onboard itself autonomously to any data warehouse.

- **Role:** Co-founder & CEO at Zenlytic
- **Organizations:** Zenlytic, Ex Quanta AI Studio, AGC Equity Partners, McKinsey & Company, Ernst & Young
- **From:** Canada
- **Nationality:** Canadian
- **Education:** M.A. in Computational Data Science, Harvard University, MBA, University of Oxford, Engineering, University of Alberta
- **Known for:** Raised $15.4M total funding for Zenlytic across pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds, Built Zoe AI, an AI data analyst with 4.9/5.0 rating on Gartner Peer Insights and 100% likelihood-to-recommend, Achieved 6x ARR growth year-to-date (referenced in 2024 interview)

## Career timeline

- **Early career** — Software developer in Canada
- **Mid-career** — Analyst at Ernst & Young, Operational Transaction Services
- **Mid-career** — Consultant at McKinsey & Company, growth-stage technology practice
- **~2014-2020** — VC investor at AGC Equity Partners (London) - 6+ years, made investments up to $50M, served on ~6 boards across 3 continents
- **2018** — Co-founded Ex Quanta AI Studio (data consultancy) with Paul Blankley
- **2020-07** — Co-founded Zenlytic with Paul Blankley
- **2024-09** — Led Zenlytic's $9M Series A round led by M13
- **2026-05** — Launched Zoe Self-Learning - AI analyst that onboards itself to data warehouses

## Achievements

- Raised $15.4M total funding for Zenlytic across pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds
- Built Zoe AI, an AI data analyst with 4.9/5.0 rating on Gartner Peer Insights and 100% likelihood-to-recommend
- Achieved 6x ARR growth year-to-date (referenced in 2024 interview)
- Pioneered conversational AI for business intelligence before the LLM hype wave
- Served on approximately 6 boards across 3 continents during VC career
- Launched Zoe Self-Learning: AI analyst that autonomously onboards to any data warehouse in minutes

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Launched Zoe Self-Learning: Zenlytic's AI analyst can now onboard itself to any data warehouse in minutes, identifying relevant tables and building the semantic layer automatically. Self-serve signup opened for teams up to 10 people.
- **2026-02** — Published blog post: 'It's 2026. Why aren't we all using analytics agents?' - continuing thought leadership on the future of AI in data analytics.
- **2026-03** — Featured on 'The OGs of AI Analytics' podcast episode alongside CTO Paul Blankley, discussing building data agents before the LLM hype.
- **2024-09** — Closed $9M Series A led by M13 with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Primary Ventures, Company Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and 14 Peaks Capital.
- **2024-12** — Featured in eMarketing Association article on the power of AI-driven business intelligence tools.

## Links

- Website: https://zenlytic.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janssenryan/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/ryanjanssen

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