Who Is Prukalpa Sankar? Atlan Co-Founder and Co-CEO Profile (2027)
Prukalpa Sankar is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Atlan, the data and AI context platform she leads with Varun Banka. Atlan's own about pages list the two of them as co-founders and co-CEOs, and she opened Atlan's Context Conference on October 28, 2026 with a keynote on why enterprise AI is missing a context layer.
She studied at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-founded the data company SocialCops, and then built Atlan out of an internal tool. This page uses public professional information only.
Current role and company
Sankar is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Atlan, alongside Varun Banka. Atlan's about page names the two as the leadership team, and its site data lists her title as Co-founder and Co-CEO. The company's newsroom shows Atlan named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance Platforms, up from Visionary the year before.
- CompanyAtlan, a platform that helps organizations organize their data so AI systems can use it.
- TitleCo-Founder and Co-CEO, shared with Varun Banka.
- Founded2019, per Atlan's site data, with a public launch in 2020 and a Singapore base.
Career path
- Growing up in India. NTU's alumni story says she grew up in India before studying at NTU's school of chemistry, chemical engineering and biotechnology.
- Early jobs. Unreasonable Group's profile says she held brief stints at Goldman Sachs and Exxon Mobil before founding a company.
- Meeting Varun Banka. NTU says a Minor in Entrepreneurship assignment in her second year changed how she thought about problems, and that she met her future co-founder by chance on a bus from campus.
- SocialCops. After a first idea, a mobile payments app, fell through, they launched SocialCops, a data intelligence company that NTU says supported development projects in more than 50 countries.
- Atlan. Struggling with messy data at SocialCops, the team built an internal tool that grew into Atlan, according to NTU.
What she is known for
- Data for social good. Unreasonable Group says she spent five years in India on data science projects, including the National Data Platform for India and a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals tracker that was implemented in three countries.
- Atlan's growth. Atlan raised a $105 million Series C in May 2024, led by GIC with Meritech Capital, at a $750 million valuation.
- Analyst recognition. Atlan was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance Platforms, per its own announcement.
- Recognition for her. Unreasonable Group lists Forbes Asia 30 Under 30, Fortune India 40 Under 40 and Forbes India 30 Under 30 among her honors.
Leadership style and philosophy
These points come from her own interviews and statements. In Atlan's Series C announcement she said the company is building the control plane for the data and AI stack, and that the main hurdle for AI is a lack of AI-ready data rather than AI models. Her October 2026 keynote was titled Enterprise AI is missing a context layer. On the Analytics Power Hour in May 2022, the topics included data enablement, measuring analyst ramp time, and culture rituals that hold values steady as teams grow. A March 2022 episode of The Data Stack Show covered her career journey, applying a data-driven mindset to poverty, and what a first data team needs.
Key numbers
Company-reported figures, with the period shown. They are Atlan's, not her personal figures.
- Series C$105 million, May 8, 2024, led by GIC with Meritech Capital.
- Valuation$750 million at the Series C (Atlan, May 2024).
- Total fundingOver $206 million as of May 2024 (Atlan).
- GrowthRevenue up more than sevenfold over two years, and enterprise sales up 400% in Q1 2024 (Atlan).
- Competitive trialsAtlan says it won 75% of competitive trials (May 2024).
- Prior roundA $50 million Series B in 2022 (Atlan newsroom).
What to watch next
Worth tracking: how Atlan's context layer for AI develops after its Gartner Leader placement, and what she and Banka say at future Context Conference events.
Questions people ask
Who is Prukalpa Sankar?
She is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Atlan, a data and AI context platform, and a co-founder of SocialCops.
Is Prukalpa Sankar still Atlan's co-CEO?
Yes. Atlan's about pages as fetched on October 31, 2026 list her and Varun Banka as co-founders and co-CEOs.
Who co-founded Atlan with her?
Varun Banka, whom NTU says she met on a bus from campus. They also founded SocialCops.
What did she do before Atlan?
She co-founded SocialCops, a data intelligence company, after brief stints at Goldman Sachs and Exxon Mobil, per Unreasonable Group.
Where did she study?
At Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, in chemical and biomolecular engineering, with a Minor in Entrepreneurship.
How much has Atlan raised?
Atlan says it raised a $105 million Series C in May 2024 at a $750 million valuation, bringing total funding to over $206 million.
Sources
- Atlan: about us · Title, founding year, headquarters
- Atlan: about · Co-CEO role and funding
- Atlan: $105M Series C (May 8, 2024) · Funding, valuation, growth figures, quote
- Atlan: newsroom · Series B, analyst rankings, podcast list
- Atlan: Gartner 2026 Magic Quadrant · Leader ranking
- Atlan: Context Conference · October 28, 2026 keynote
- NTU alumni story · Education, SocialCops, founding story
- Unreasonable Group profile · Background, projects, honors, headshot
- Dremio speaker profile · Speaker bio, used to cross-check her photo
- Analytics Power Hour #193 · Interview topics, May 17, 2022
- The Data Stack Show episode 81 · Interview topics, March 30, 2022
Facts were read from the linked pages on October 31, 2026, partly through a fetch tool that returns summaries, so confirm details on the original pages. The hero photo is the headshot on her Unreasonable Group profile. This page covers public professional information only.
Top photo: Unreasonable Group (unreasonablegroup.com)