# Vivek Nair

> Vivek Nair is the co-founder and CEO of Multifactor (YC F25), an applied cryptography company building zero-trust authentication, authorization, and auditing for AI agents. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley at 22 as a Hertz Fellow, published landmark work on privacy in virtual reality, and served as a technical lead in cyber units at the Department of Defense and CIA before starting the company.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Multifactor
- **Organizations:** Multifactor, UC Berkeley, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense
- **From:** Phoenix, Arizona, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Ph.D. in Computer Science, UC Berkeley, Master's in Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Bachelor's in Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- **Known for:** Completed a Ph.D. in Computer Science at UC Berkeley at age 22, Co-founded Multifactor and raised a $15M seed round to secure online accounts for AI agents, Selected to Y Combinator's Fall 2025 (F25) batch

## Career timeline

- **2014-2015** — Software Engineer at VCNinc
- **2015** — Software Engineer at Holmusk (healthcare tech, Singapore)
- **2015-2020** — Authentication Consultant at Solid Security
- **2020-2021** — Cyber Researcher at the Department of Defense
- **2021-2022** — Researcher at UC Berkeley Initiative for Cryptocurrencies & Contracts (IC3)
- **2022-2023** — Researcher at UC Berkeley Center for Responsible Decentralized Intelligence (RDI)
- **2023-2025** — Cyber Researcher / Technical Lead at the CIA
- **2025-present** — Co-Founder and CEO of Multifactor (YC F25)

## Achievements

- Completed a Ph.D. in Computer Science at UC Berkeley at age 22
- Co-founded Multifactor and raised a $15M seed round to secure online accounts for AI agents
- Selected to Y Combinator's Fall 2025 (F25) batch
- Received the CIA/Directorate's Exceptional Performance Award for cyber operations
- Named a 2022 Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellow
- Won the 2022 Tong Leong Lim Pre-Doctoral Prize at UC Berkeley
- Received the Hertz Foundation's Newman-Galas Entrepreneurial Initiative Award (2025)
- USENIX Security 2023 Distinguished Artifact Award for MFKDF
- ACM UIST 2023 Best Paper Award for 'Going Incognito in the Metaverse' (MetaGuard)
- Authored research identifying 50,000+ VR users from head and hand motion data
- Holds six patents in authentication and credential security
- Captained UC Berkeley's Beat Saber team to a U.S. national collegiate championship (2021)

## Latest updates

- **2025-12** — Multifactor raised a $15M seed round to make online accounts safe for AI agents.
- **2025-12** — Multifactor launched what it calls the first password manager built for the AI era, letting users turn anything into a read-only link.
- **2025-09** — Multifactor joined Y Combinator's Fall 2025 batch.
- **2025** — Received the Hertz Foundation's Newman-Galas Entrepreneurial Initiative Award for the AI cybersecurity startup.

## Links

- Website: https://nair.me/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nair/
- GitHub: https://github.com/VCNinc
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/multifactorinc

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/vivek-nair
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-31