From Apple staff to Forbes 30-U-30 list — This young Indian-origin founder helps banks ensure financial compliance

Kalyani Ramadurgam, the Indian-origin co-founder of Kobalt Labs, alongside former Affirm software engineer Ashi Agrawal, have made it to the Forbes 30-Under-30 United States List for 2026 in the finance category. 

Founded in 2023, Kobalt Labs uses machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) models to comb through “mountains of documents”. It helps banks vet their business partners, ensure compliance with financial regulations and promptly disclose security breaches, as per Forbes.

Who is Kalyani Ramadurgam?

Kalyani Ramadurgam formerly worked at Apple, where her role involved preventing individuals on terrorism watch lists from using Apple Pay, according to Forbes. Despite Apple's technological prowess, she was “shocked that the compliance process was analog and tedious”, requiring thousands of pages of documentation to be reviewed manually.

She told the publication, “It meant reading through not just hundreds, but thousands of pages of documentation. Organisations were just throwing bodies at the problem.”

This frustration inspired her to co-found Kobalt in 2023 with Agrawal, aiming to “bring compliance into the machine-learning age”.

What does Kalyani Ramadurgam's Kobalt Labs do?

According to Forbes, Kobalt Labs uses AI to help banks comb through massive amounts of data and documents to review their partners. Its tool ensures compliance with financial laws, including disclosure of security breaches, halting money transfers from sanctioned countries and more.

The company has raised $13 million in funding and has over 20 customers, including Celtic Bank and Bilt.

Forbes 30-Under-30 US 2026: Full list of Indian-origin achievers

The Forbes 30-Under-30 US 2026 list, released on 2 December 2025, features achievers who collectively raised $3.8 billion in funding. The average age is 27 years, with the youngest being 17.

Artificial Intelligence

• Karun Kaushik (Co-founder of Delve)
• Samir Dutta and Kunal Tangri (Co-founders of Farsight)
• Adit Abraham and Raunak Chowdhuri (Co-founders of Reducto)
• Advith Chelikani (Co-founder of Pylon)

Finance

• Ashi Agrawal and Kalyani Ramadurgam (Co-founders of Kobalt Labs)
• Arkin Gupta (Trader at Citadel)
• Divya Nettimi (Founder of Avala Global)

Beauty

• Monica Ravichandran (Beauty Creator)

Manufacturing and Industry

• Ayna Arora (Co-founder of MorphoAI)
• Meher Akhil Birlangi (Co-founder of Craitor)
• Anand Lalwani (Co-founder of Cardinal Robotics)

Healthcare

• Karthik Bhaskara (Co-founder of Arlo)
• Rohit Rustogi (Co-founder of Mandolin)
• Arya Rao (M.D./PhD. Candidate, Harvard Medical School)

Education

• Mit Patel (Co-founder of SwiftSku)
• Rajya Atluri (Co-founder of Coral AI)
• Kausi Raman (Co-founder of Chompshop)
• Aryan Bhadouria (Co-founder of TeachShare)

Art and Style

• Arushi Kapoor (Co-founder of The Agency Art House)
• Teya Kepila (Founder of The Turmeric Times)

Social Impact

• Sarika Bajaj and Tushita Gupta (Co-founders of Refiberd)
• Amrita Bhasin (Co-founder of Sotira)
• Mohan Sudabattula (Founder of Project Embrace)
• Shiv Soin (Co-founder of TREEage)

Transportation & Aerospace

• Shashwat Murarka and Sheel Patel (Co-founders of Doorstep)
• Ashika Gopalkrishnan (Director of Product, NASA)
• Dhruv Gupta (Co-founder of Drumkit)
• Vishaal Mali (Founder of Salient Motion)
• Onkar Singh (Founder of Apolink)

Games

• Rohan Kapur (Principal Engineer at Backbone)

Food and drinks

• Mitalee Bharadwaj (Co-founder of Transcendence Coffee)

Venture Capital

• Hassan Chaudhry (Vice President of BlackRock)
• Manmeet Gujral (Vice President of CapitalG)
• Divya Dhulipala (Principal of Haystack)
• Vinay Iyengar (Founder and Managing Partner of Anansi Capital)
• Saveena Mandadi (Principal Investor of Mantis VC)

Science

• Navvye Anand (Co-founder of Bindwell)
• Shaurya Luthra (Co-founder of Northwood Space)
• Minduli Wijayatunga (Co-founder of Incoming Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
• Shreyas Vissapragada (Postdoctoral Researcher of Carnegie Observatories)