# Ryohei Fujimaki

> Ryohei Fujimaki is the founder and CEO of dotData, a Silicon Valley enterprise AI company that automates feature engineering and data science. A machine learning PhD from the University of Tokyo, he became the youngest research fellow in NEC's 119-year history at age 33 before spinning dotData out of NEC to commercialize automated feature discovery. He has raised roughly $75 million to make predictive analytics accessible to a broader range of business users.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at dotData
- **Organizations:** dotData, NEC Corporation, NEC Laboratories America, University of Tokyo
- **From:** Japan
- **Nationality:** Japanese
- **Education:** Ph.D. in machine learning and artificial intelligence, University of Tokyo
- **Known for:** Youngest research fellow in NEC's 119-year history, appointed at age 33., One of only six research fellows among 1,000+ NEC researchers., Founded and scaled dotData, raising roughly $75 million total funding.

## Career timeline

- **2006** — Joined NEC Corporation and began machine learning research.
- **2011** — Transferred to NEC Laboratories America; led research on semi-automation of machine learning and heterogeneous mixture learning.
- **2015** — Appointed NEC Research Fellow at age 33 - the youngest in NEC's 119-year history, one of only six among 1,000+ researchers.
- **2018** — Founded dotData, Inc. as a carve-out from NEC in Silicon Valley to commercialize data science automation.
- **2022** — dotData reached roughly $75M raised, closing a Series B.
- **2024** — Launched dotData Feature Factory 1.1 with GenAI-assisted feature discovery; dotData Insight added a GenAI Use Case Advisor.
- **2025** — Shipped Feature Factory 1.3 and dotData Enterprise 4.0 with a redesigned UX and Feature Factory core engine.

## Achievements

- Youngest research fellow in NEC's 119-year history, appointed at age 33.
- One of only six research fellows among 1,000+ NEC researchers.
- Founded and scaled dotData, raising roughly $75 million total funding.
- Pioneered automated feature discovery technology recognized by Fortune 500 firms and Forrester.
- Executed a rare successful startup carve-out from a large Japanese corporation.
- Published research on AutoML, heterogeneous mixture learning, and automated feature engineering.

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — dotData launched Enterprise 4.0 with a fully redesigned predictive analytics UX and a new core engine based on Feature Factory.
- **2025-02** — dotData shipped Feature Factory 1.3 with AI-powered feature discovery, automated text processing, and expanded LLM support.
- **2024-09** — dotData Insight 1.1 introduced a GenAI-powered Use Case Advisor.

## Links

- Website: https://dotdata.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryohei-fujimaki-1a6bb95
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/DotDataUS
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dotData/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ryohei-fujimaki
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-29