Abhi Sharma

Abhi Sharma is the CEO and Co-Founder of Relyance AI, a company that provides an AI-powered data protection and governance platform.13 He is a software engineer by trade and a serial entrepreneur, with Relyance AI being his third startup as a founder.1

Background and Experience

• Born in Northern India, close to the Himalayan range2
• Studied Computer Science and Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)2
• Previously worked at AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco)1
• Founding member of FogHorn Systems (acquired by Johnson Controls)12
• Served as Technologist in Residence at Unusual Ventures1

Relyance AI

Abhi co-founded Relyance AI with Leila Golchehreh in early 2020.4 The company focuses on privacy and governance challenges in the context of increasing AI adoption in enterprises.4 As of February 2025:

• Relyance AI is approximately 50 months old
• The company has grown to 75 people and is 100% remote-first1
• They have raised $30 million in Series A funding1
• Relyance AI has been recognized on CB Insights' 2023 "AI 100" list of most promising private AI companies3

Expertise and Interests

Abhi's areas of technical interest and expertise include:

1. Large Scale Distributed Systems & Edge Computing
2. Functional Programming, Compiler Design, & High-Performance AI Runtime
3. Intelligence Augmentation & Tools for Thought
4. Augmented Reality for Cognitive Assistance
5. Technology at the Intersection of Domains
6. Study of Human Progress2

Abhi is known for his innovative approach to privacy and data governance, emphasizing a code-first methodology that embeds privacy controls directly into source code.34