# Vinay Goel

> Vinay Goel is the CEO and co-founder of Wald.ai, a Palo Alto startup building contextual data-loss protection for the age of generative AI. After more than 30 years in product and technology - a decade at Google leading Maps and Local, then top product roles at JLL, Kiavi, Check Point and Webroot - he co-founded Wald.ai in 2024 to solve the 'shadow AI' problem: employees feeding sensitive company data into ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Wald.ai redacts sensitive data inline, lets the AI answer, then restores the original context before the user sees it. He raised a $4M seed round in December 2024 and sits on the Forbes Technology Council.

- **Role:** CEO & Co-Founder at Wald.ai
- **Organizations:** Wald.ai, Kiavi, JLL, Google, Check Point Software, Webroot
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley, Master of Management (Marketing & Finance), Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management
- **Known for:** Co-founded Wald.ai and raised a $4M seed round (December 2024), Member of the Forbes Technology Council, Led product for Google Maps and Local for roughly a decade

## Career timeline

- **~2006-2016** — Director of Product Management at Google, leading consumer imagery and developer API teams for Google Maps and Local (over a decade at Google)
- **—** — Chief Digital Officer at JLL, a Fortune 150 company; founded JLL Labs and scaled a global product org of 100+ in engineering, product and design
- **—** — Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) at Kiavi, a fintech in the mortgage/bridge lending space
- **earlier** — Product leadership at Check Point Software and Webroot, focused on internet security
- **2024** — Co-founded Wald.ai with Ritesh Ahuja; became CEO
- **2024-12** — Closed $4M seed round to launch contextual data-loss protection for AI platforms

## Achievements

- Co-founded Wald.ai and raised a $4M seed round (December 2024)
- Member of the Forbes Technology Council
- Led product for Google Maps and Local for roughly a decade
- Founded JLL Labs and scaled a 100+ person global product organization at a Fortune 150 company
- Built Wald.ai to SOC2 Type II compliance
- 30+ years of product and technology leadership across security, fintech, proptech and consumer tech

## Latest updates

- **2024-12** — Wald.ai launched contextual data-loss protection and closed a $4M seed round led by Inventus Capital and Entrada Ventures.
- **2025-09** — Published 'Keeping PII and Sensitive Data Safe in our AI Driven World.'
- **2026-03** — Published 'Why Traditional DLP Solutions Fail in the Modern Era?'

## Links

- Website: https://wald.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinayrgoel/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/vinay-goel
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-21