Diana Hu is a Group Partner at Y Combinator, where she guides early-stage founders in building transformative technology companies. She brings deep expertise in augmented reality, machine learning, and data science from her extensive technical background.

Diana co-founded and served as CTO of Escher Reality (YC S17), an AR backend platform acquired by Niantic in 2018, where she then led the AR platform for Pokemon GO reaching 100M+ users. She previously led data science at OnCue TV (acquired by Verizon) and worked at Intel Labs on large-scale machine learning frameworks.

Originally from Chile, Diana holds a BS and MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University with a focus in computer vision and machine learning. She has conducted over 1,700 office hours across 5 YC batches, supporting hundreds of startups.

At Niantic, Diana headed the AR platform and drove engineering and product initiatives that powered planet-scale augmented reality experiences. Her technical leadership spans AR/VR, AI, developer tools, and gaming sectors.

Diana has invested in over 120 companies as a YC partner, focusing on AR, AI, and deep tech startups. She co-hosts Lightcone, a podcast discussing contrarian technology bets, and champions women-led companies and open source startups in the YC ecosystem.