Founder · Investor · Technologist
Derek J. Manuge
Building meaningful companies and backing ambitious entrepreneurs, from a laptop in the Cayman Islands.*
6
Companies
2
Exits
5
Publications
1
Patent
01
About
I was educated in mathematics.
I have 10+ years of experience building and scaling VC-backed companies from 0 to exit.
I've built several products from 0 to 1, and managed teams with 40+ engineers.
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
02
Selected companies
01
Manuge
Model development and software engineering
Founder & Director
2016–
02
Corl†
Revenue-based financing using AI
Co-Founder & CEO
2017–24
03
Key
Fractional homeownership as a service
Co-Founder & Economist
2019–20
04
Railz†
Unified API for accounting data
Co-Founder & CTO
2020–24
05
409.AI
Automated business valuations using AI
Advisor
2024
06
Stealth
TBA
Founder
2026
03
Career
2020–2029
- ______________ (2026)
- Published "Multivariate Residual Estimation Risk"
- Open-sourced "An SDK for AI-to-AI Negotiation Methods via the x402 Protocol"
- 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 Blockchain Hub, York University
- Patented "System and method for on-demand ownership management"
- 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)
- Published "Basket Option Pricing using the Mellin Transform"
- 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"
- Travel Award, Centre de Recherches Mathématiques
- Published "A fast Fourier transform method for Mellin-type option pricing"
- Travel Award, Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute
- Published "Multi-Asset Option Pricing with Exponential Lévy Processes and the Mellin Transform"
- 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 a 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
04
Contact
* Wi-Fi permitted.
† Acquired: Corl by Napkin (2024), Railz by FIS Global (2024).