Derek J. Manuge

Founder, investor, and builder focused on creating meaningful companies and supporting ambitious entrepreneurs.

About

I have 10+ years of experience building and scaling VC-backed companies from 0 to exit.

I have built several products from 0 to 1, and managed teams with 40+ engineers.

My background is in mathematics. I'm passionate about AI, fintech, blockchain, and infrastructure.

Location

A laptop in the Cayman Islands

Focus

Company building, Product strategy, Software engineering, Angel investing

Companies

Manuge

Manuge

Founder & Director • 2016-Present

Model Development and Software Engineering
Corl
Exited

Corl

Co-Founder & CEO • 2017-2024

Revenue-Based Financing using AI
Key

Key

Co-Founder & Economist • 2019-2020

Fractional Homeownership as a Service

Railz
Exited

Railz

Co-Founder & CTO • 2020-2024

Unified API for Accounting Data
409.AI

409.AI

Advisor • 2024

Automated Business Valuations using AI
Stealth

Stealth

Founder • 2026

TBA

Career

2020-2029

  • Founded a __________________ company, _________ (2026)
  • Open-sourced an SDK for AI-to-AI negotiation methods via the x402 protocol (link)
  • Founded an automated business valuations company, 409.AI (2024)
  • Corl acquired by Napkin (2024)
  • Railz acquired by FIS Global (2024)
  • Founded an accounting data aggregation company, Railz (2020)

2010-2019

  • Startup Advisor, The BlockchainHub, York University
  • Patented "System and method for on-demand ownership management" (link)
  • Founded a fractional Homeownership as a Service company, Key (2019)
  • Launched a loan fund for women entrepreneurs, Delia (2019-2024)
  • Top 25 Leader in Lending, Canadian Lenders Association
  • Founded a revenue-based financing company, Corl (2017)
  • Founded a statistical model development and consulting company, Manuge Consulting (2016)
  • Steering Committee Member, Blockchain Risk Research Group, Global Association of Risk Professionals (Top 25%)
  • Level I and II, Financial Risk Manager (FRM®), Global Association of Risk Professionals (Top 25%)
  • Level I, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®), CFA Institute
  • Manager, Financial Risk Management, KPMG (2015-2017)
  • Manager, Model Validation, Scotiabank (2014-2015)
  • Research Associate, Developer Operations, BlackBerry (2013)
  • Chairman, Guelph Finance Conference (largest student-run conference in Guelph, 2012-2013)
  • Research Assistant, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph (2011-2013)
  • Master of Science (M.Sc.), Applied Mathematics, University of Guelph (90%)
  • Published "Lévy Processes For Finance: An Introduction in R" (link)
  • Travel Award, Centre de Recherches Mathématiques
  • Published "A fast Fourier transform method for Mellin-type option pricing" (link)
  • Travel Award, Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute
  • Published "Multi-Asset Option Pricing with Exponential Lévy Processes and the Mellin Transform" (link)
  • Young Researcher Travel Award, Wilfred Laurier University
  • Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Mathematics, University of Guelph (85%)
  • Undergraduate Research Award, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph
  • Undergraduate Student Research Award, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
  • 94th-percentile in Bloomberg Aptitude Test
  • President, Economics and Finance Association, University of Guelph
  • Board Member, College of Management and Economics Student Association, University of Guelph
  • 4x Honour Roll, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph

2000-2009

  • Campus Winner, "On the House" Campus Competition, Virgin Mobile Canada
  • 2x Dean's Scholarship, College of Physical and Engineering Science, University of Guelph
  • Entrance Scholarship, College of Physical and Engineering Science, University of Guelph
  • Entrance Scholarship, University of Guelph
  • Queen Elizabeth II: Aiming for the Top Scholarship, Government of Ontario
  • Ontario Scholar Award, Government of Ontario
  • Summer Company Award, Government of Ontario
  • Launched a landscaping company (bought a truck)
  • Horticultural Society Award
  • John Bernard Kennedy Award
  • Top 25% in Gauss Mathematics Contest, University of Waterloo
  • 3 Academic Achievement Awards (Highest overall grade in high school)
  • Forum Moderator, Pinkbike.com
  • Launched an dropshipping ecommerce business for bicycle components (bought a bike)
  • Learned how to code; built my first website
  • 19 Course Awards (Highest course grade in high school: Math, Physics, Computer Science, History, Geography, English, French, etc.)

1990-1999

  • Played Lego, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Age of Empires
  • Born

Contact Me

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