Young Founders Raise Millions Amid AI Boom

The tech industry is familiar with young founders. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple at 21, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook at 19, and Whitney Wolfe Herd unveiled Bumble at 25.

Many of today's startup founders remain young and ambitious. In the AI era, they are even more empowered to forge ahead. Some follow the path of tech giants by dropping out of college, while others skip undergraduate studies altogether, with a few leaving high school to pursue tech careers.

Arlan Rakhmetzhanov, founder of AI coding startup Nozomio, shared with Business Insider that he left high school in Kazakhstan after being accepted into the competitive startup accelerator Y Combinator (YC). At 18, he raised $6.2 million for Nozomio.

Rakhmetzhanov is not the only teenager finding success in AI. Toby Brown, a UK teen, raised $1 million for his AI project. Zach Yadegari, the teenage co-founder of Cal AI, developed a nutrition app.

College-aged founders are also building companies and raising capital, such as the Yale students behind Series AI, a new social networking startup. The median age for YC participants has decreased from 30 in 2022 to 24.

Business Insider interviewed founders of eight startups, all under 25, who have raised millions since 2024, discussing the pitch decks that impressed investors. BI's Young Geniuses series highlights the next generation of founders and innovators reshaping industries and addressing global challenges.