Enki

If Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to take our 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 — 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 has raised more than five million dollars, including from the first investor in ServiceTitan ($7 billion software company), the CEO of Mercury ($5 billion financial-technology company), and venture capitalists that have invested in Duolingo (language-learning app valued at $5 billion) 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.”

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

I2BF Global Ventures

A New-York-based VC firm investing in early-stage companies.

Learn Capital

Venture capital firm focused on funding early-stage companies. Portfolio includes Edmodo (network that provides educational tools for teachers and students and was acquired by NetDragon for $137 million) and MissionU (a platform designed to be an alternative to college for students that was acquired by WeWork).