This Week’s Top Talent Pools

Parafin, the San Francisco embedded capital platform, agreed to be acquired by Stripe. It had raised $190M in equity across 8 rounds from Thrive Capital, Ribbit Capital, GIC, Redpoint and Notable Capital, plus a Goldman Sachs credit facility in June.

  1. Ralph Furman in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Co-Founder and President @ Parafin (4.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Founder @ Sugaku, Chief Scientist @ Numerai ($30M Series C at $500M, USV, Paul Tudor Jones), Data Scientist @ Robinhood, PHD Student @ Stanford University

    3. Description: Left Sugaku on 9/25

  2. Ernel Murati in SF (Stealth)

    1. Role: Founding Engineer @ Parafin (4.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder & CTO @ Serengeti, SWE @ Uber

    3. Description: Stealth since 4/26

  3. Jonathan Johannemann in SF (CEO and Founder @ Virescent.ai)

    1. Role: Data Scientist @ Parafin (2 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Founding Team @ Parcha ($5M from Kindred & Initialized), Data Scientist @ Robinhood, Quantitative Researcher @ Balyasny Asset Management L.P., Data Scientist @ Point72

    3. Description: "Intelligent servicing and collections infrastructure for fintechs, banks, and credit unions.”

Varda Space Industries, the El Segundo in-space manufacturing and reentry company, closed a $251M Series D on 30 September led by Lux Capital and Natural Capital, with Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, 8090 Industries, Giant Step and Also Capital. That takes total funding to nearly $600M at a $1.6B valuation, after a $187M Series C in July 2025. Founded

  1. Eric Lasker in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: CRO & founding team @ Varda (5.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Head of US Federal Partnerships @ Zipline International, Enterprise Sales and Market Development @ Stripe

    3. Description: Stepped down as CRO 9/26

  2. Mohith Mothukuri in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Spacecraft Engineer @ Varda (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Founding MTS & 1st hardware engineer @ Physical Intelligence ($1.6B from CapitalG, Lux, Bezos), Senior Mechatronics Engineer @ Anduril Industries, Managing Partner @ Rough Draft Ventures

    3. Description: Left PI in 2025

  3. Collin Mickels in LA (Stealth)

    1. Role: Spacecraft Engineering, Responsible Engineer @ Varda (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Founder @ Rollup ($6M from a16z, Thiel Capital), Modeling and Simulation Engineering @ Blue Origin, Project Systems Engineering @ NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

    3. Description: “Stealth AI Lab”

Monzo, the UK digital bank with 16 million accounts (15M consumer, 1M business), is in talks over a potential sale to Brazil's Nu Holdings at a valuation between $10.5B and $13.2B, with Morgan Stanley and Qatalyst advising, per Sky News (9/28/26). The alternative under review is an equity fundraising round exceeding an $8B valuation to finance expansion into mainland Europe. Previously valued at $5.9B (Oct 2024 secondary). UK government officials and the London Stock Exchange have lobbied for a domestic IPO. The bank's latest product is Aura, a credit card directing cashback into investments.

  1. Veronique Merriam Barbosa in London (Stealth)

    1. Role: Head of Customer Loyalty Rewards @ Monzo (3 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder @ Flux ($20M from Headline), 4th FTE & Head of Partnerships @ Revolut, LSE MSc, HEC Paris CEMS

    3. Description: Stealth since 7/26. Building "a generational AI wealth company."

  2. Oliver Beattie in Zurich (Stealth)

    1. Role: Early Team & VP Architecture @ Monzo (6 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Co-Founder and CTO @ iterate, Principal Engineer @ Pleo, Principal Engineer @ Sequence, Head of Engineering @ Imprint

    3. Description: Stealth since 7/25

  3. Ilya Vorobiev in SF (Stealth)

    1. Role: Product Director, Banking for SMEs @ Monzo (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Lead PM @ Revolut, Head of Product @ Yandex, PM @ The Walt Disney Company, PM @ Microsoft

    3. Description: Stealth since 2026

  4. Andrew Ellam in London (Stealth)

    1. Role: Chief of Staff to CTO @ Monzo (1 yr 3 mos)

    2. Other Experience: Manager, TPM @ Facebook, Senior TPM @ Amazon, University of Cambridge BA, London Business School MBA

    3. Description: Stealth bioengineering startup since 8/26

  5. Robin Bilgil in London (Co-Founder & CEO @ Whirl)

    1. Role: Senior Backend Engineer @ Monzo (3.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Founding Engineer / Head of Engineering @ Packfleet ($21M from GC, Creandum, Voyager Ventures)

    3. Description: "Autopilot for your operations."

Flow Engineering, the San Francisco agentic systems-engineering platform for hardware teams, raised a $50M Series B on 30 September at a $750M valuation, co-led by Antonio Gracias of Valor Equity Partners and Gavin Baker of Atreides Management. Sequoia, which led the Series A, returned, alongside Human Capital, Evantic, SV Angel, Odyssey and EQT. Roelof Botha invested personally and joined the board, and Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf, Mercedes-Benz CIO Jonas von Malottki and Nico Rosberg also put money in.

  1. Eu Chian Tan in London (Stealth)

    1. Role: 1st FTE, Founding PM and Engineer @ Flow Engineering (5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Senior PM @ PhysicsX, Senior Platform PM @ Productboard, Robotics Research Engineer @ Imperial College London, Imperial College London

    3. Description: Stealth since 2/26

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