# Shensi Ding

> Shensi Ding is the co-founder and CEO of Merge, the unified API platform that lets B2B software companies offer hundreds of product integrations by integrating just once. A Columbia computer science graduate who detoured through investment banking at Credit Suisse and Silver Lake before becoming Chief of Staff at Expanse, she co-founded Merge in 2020 with college friend Gil Feig after they spent six months talking to 100+ companies about integration pain — without pitching a single solution. Merge has since raised $75M from Accel, NEA, and Addition, serves 7,000+ customers including Calendly, Gong, Ramp, and Brex, and has become critical infrastructure for the AI era as LLMs need real-time access to third-party data.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Merge
- **Organizations:** Merge, Expanse, Credit Suisse, Silver Lake
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Columbia University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Merge, raising $75M total from Accel, NEA, and Addition, Built Merge to 7,000+ enterprise customers including Calendly, Gong, TripActions, Ramp, and Brex, Achieved 30x ARR growth in 12 months leading up to Series B

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Enrolled at Columbia University School of Engineering; met Gil Feig freshman year
- **2015** — Graduated Columbia University; served as Engineering Student Council President (Feig was VP)
- **2015** — Joined Credit Suisse in investment banking
- **2017** — Moved to Silver Lake in investment banking
- **2019** — Joined Expanse as Chief of Staff (Expanse later acquired by Palo Alto Networks for ~$1B)
- **2020** — Left Expanse; spent 6-8 months interviewing 100+ companies about integration pain without pitching a solution
- **2020-06** — Co-founded Merge with Gil Feig, initially operating out of Feig's San Francisco apartment
- **2020-08** — Closed $4.5M seed round led by NEA
- **2021-04** — Launched Merge publicly with self-serve model and free tier, covering HRIS and ATS categories simultaneously
- **2021** — Raised $15M Series A; reached 600 customers and 50 integrations
- **2022-10** — Closed $55M Series B led by Accel; reported 30x ARR growth over prior 12 months
- **2024** — Merge serves 7,000+ customers including Calendly, Gong, TripActions, AngelList, Revolut, Ramp, and Brex

## Achievements

- Co-founded Merge, raising $75M total from Accel, NEA, and Addition
- Built Merge to 7,000+ enterprise customers including Calendly, Gong, TripActions, Ramp, and Brex
- Achieved 30x ARR growth in 12 months leading up to Series B
- Grew Merge to ~140 employees with offices in San Francisco, New York City, and Berlin
- Led Engineering Student Council as President at Columbia University
- Built integration infrastructure now used by frontier LLMs and Fortune 500 companies
- Pioneered the unified API category for B2B SaaS integrations

## Latest updates

- **2022-10** — Closed $55M Series B led by Accel at reported 30x ARR growth
- **2024** — Merge expanded focus to AI use cases, positioning as the integration layer for frontier LLMs and AI agents needing third-party data access
- **2025** — Merge cited as leading provider of customer-facing integrations for Fortune 500s and frontier AI companies

## Links

- Website: https://merge.dev
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shensiding
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/shensi_
- GitHub: https://github.com/shensiding

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/shensi-ding
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-22