ai-fraud-prevention
(2)
Piyush Verma
Piyush Verma is the co-founder and CEO of Neural Defend, an AI cybersecurity startup that detects deepfakes across video, audio, images, and real-time streams. A two-time founder and former MIT, Harvard, and Tsinghua researcher, he previously built Manush Labs, an impact accelerator backed by billionaire Desh Deshpande, and founded the MIT India Initiative. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and MIT Tata Fellow trained in design at IIT Delhi, Verma now works to defend real human identities against synthetic deception, with Neural Defend raising $600K in pre-seed funding and partnering with Zee News on India's first media-led deepfake verification system.
Zain Zaidi
Zain Zaidi is the co-founder and CEO of TransCrypts, a blockchain-powered credential and employment verification platform he started after struggling to access his own college transcript as an SJSU student. Backed by Mark Cuban, Pantera Capital, and Techstars, he has grown the company to 450+ enterprise clients and 4 million users across 9 countries, raised $18M+, launched JustScreen (the world's first free background check service), and earned a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2026 — all before turning 30. His platform has also helped over 4,000 Ukrainian refugees access medical records.