Dev Patel is the Co-Founder and CTO of Aqua, an AI-native turnkey alternative investment platform (TAIP) headquartered in New York City, built to give financial advisors and fund managers seamless access to private equity, venture capital, real estate, and hedge funds.

Prior to co-founding Aqua in 2020, Dev gained foundational experience as a software engineer at Bank of America, building the technical expertise that would later power Aqua's platform infrastructure.

Dev is also an active angel investor, backing early-stage startups and bringing a dual perspective as both a builder and a capital allocator to the alternative investments space.

Aqua was accepted into Y Combinator's Summer 2021 batch and raised a $2.5M seed round led by Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund, with participation from Y Combinator, validating the platform's vision early on.

Aqua has secured a strategic partnership with Permira, an asset manager overseeing more than $50 billion in assets, and competes in a growing market alongside players like iCapital and Juniper Square, positioning itself as a leading democratizer of alternative investments.