Wasi Ahmed is Co-Founder at Maven, a Y Combinator W26 startup building payment infrastructure for voice AI agents. Maven enables voice AI to collect payments during live calls, solving a critical gap in conversational commerce.

Wasi studied Computer Science at UC Berkeley and previously worked as a software engineer at Amazon. He also gained experience through internships at Figma and other leading tech companies.

Wasi has hands-on experience building AI-powered products and has been involved in the Berkeley startup ecosystem. He co-founded Launch Hacks, a student-led hackathon that grew to 2,900+ participants and awarded over $145,000 in prizes.

Maven was founded in 2025 and is based in San Francisco as part of Y Combinator's Winter 2026 batch. The company is pioneering the voice AI payments space as businesses increasingly adopt AI agents for customer interactions.

Maven addresses the growing market for voice AI infrastructure as companies shift to automated customer service and sales. The startup is positioned at the intersection of two rapidly expanding sectors: conversational AI and fintech payments.