Enki

If Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to take people’s jobs, why not use the technology to get a better one?

That’s the idea behind Enki. Enki partners with companies for whom up-skilling — this is the process of learning new skills for a different role — is an important part of their business. It’s created an AI-software system that empowers individuals and teams who are learning.

Enki is targeting what it refers to as an AI tsunami. As this technology takes over, it’ll significantly impact the job market. By 2030, one billion people will need re-skilling.

The problem is that training employees in hard skills is inefficient, expensive, and ineffective. Eighty percent of online learners quit. And ninety-four percent of employees forget what they learn within weeks.

Companies that rely on up-skilling — universities, bootcamps, hiring platforms — struggle to deliver effective training at scale. This is where Enki can help.

Enki’s software relies on AI-driven interactions, adapting to learners in real-time. It also offers mentor-style feedback loops, customized content, and can be integrated into any platform.

Notably, this software is built to help people learn whatever skills are needed by their company or that are in demand — coding, prompting, judgement-based decision making, or human-AI coordination.

Enki has raised more than five million dollars, including from the first investor in ServiceTitan ($8 billion software company), the CEO of Mercury ($3.5 billion financial-technology company), and venture-capitalists who’ve invested in Duolingo (language-learning app valued at seventeen billion dollars) and Coursera.

Said Michael Staton of Learn Capital, a VC that invested in Duolingo:

“Enki is one of the few companies that is actually redefining how professional learn. This is not just a good investment; this is going to be a very transformative organization, and what they’re doing is going to play a part in really redefining what it means to have a career in the 21st century.”

Enki is cash-flow positive and growing fast. It tripled revenue in the past six months.

To generate revenue, the company sets up customized AI-powered platforms for each customer. And customers pay them every month as long as they use the platform. Revenues per customer range from $5,000 to $50,000 per month.

Enki has around five customers today but aims to reach twenty-five over the next eighteen months. This will take the company from $500,000 in annual-recurring revenue (ARR) today to five million dollars ARR by 2026.

Team Background

Kirill Makharinsky - Chief Executive Officer

Kirill previously built two companies that reached $250 million in annual-recurring revenue. He’s also invested more than two million dollars of his own capital into Enki.

Most recently, he co-founded Emerging Travel Group, an online-travel company that reached revenues of $200 million. Before that, he co-founded Quid, a software company whose clients included Microsoft and the British government. This company raised sixty-nine million dollars from Founders Fund and Peter Thiel.

Earlier, Kirill was an early employee with Slide, a media company led by the Founder of PayPal that was acquired by Google in 2010 for $182 million.

He earned a degree in Mathematics from Oxford.

Jeff Feng - Content and Product Advisor

In addition to his role with Enki, Jeff is a senior-product manager with Google, working on the company’s image-recognition technology Google Lens.

Previously, he was Head of Product and Data with Airbnb, the hospitality company. Before that, he was a product manager with Tableau Software, a software-development company.

Earlier in his career, Jeff was an associate with McKinsey, a management-consulting firm, and was a program manager with Apple.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. and MBA from MIT.

Co-Investors