Mr. Narayan was the Founder and former CEO of AutoGrid Systems, Inc., the leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven optimization for distributed energy resources, which was sold to Schneider Electric SE in September 2022. He is considered one of the leading experts on the application of technology to energy management. Mr. Narayan and his work have been recognized with several awards, including Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer, and the EDN’s Innovation of the Year. 

Prior to founding AutoGrid in 2011, Mr. Narayan was the Director of Smart Grid Research in Modeling & Simulation at Stanford University, where he led an interdisciplinary project related to modeling, optimization and control of the electricity grid and associated electricity markets.

Prior to his time at Stanford, Mr. Narayan was the Vice President of Products at Magma Design Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq: LAVA), where he led the product development and product management teams responsible for Magma’s flagship product in the design implementation area. Over one third of all semiconductor chips used in consumer electronic devices — such as smart phones, blue-ray players and video games — were designed using products developed by Mr. Narayan’s team at Magma.

Currently, Mr. Narayan is the Founder of Climate-AI Ventures, a venture fund and “company creation studio” dedicated to catalyzing and accelerating new companies to make planetary scale impact in combating climate change utilizing artificial intelligence.

Mr. Narayan received his B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur and Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Narayan has published multiple research papers, holds seven U.S. patents and is an active advisor to several startup companies in the Bay Area.