Maria Zou

AI x Employee Benefits | Avenir AI (a16z SR5) | MIT

Co-founder

Avenir AI· 005 🇺🇸 San Francisco, California, United States

in LinkedIn

2025Co-founder· Avenir AI

Founder · since 2025

Company

Avenir AI

Role

Co-Founder

current

Stage

—

no public source

Raised

—

no public source

Based

San Francisco Bay Area

current

Founder / co-founder — the company's markEmployee / research role

Source: LinkedIn work history

Profile coverage5 of 7 · missing posts, contact

Avenir AI

AI Agents for Employee Benefits: the $1.9T market.

005

Experience

Career

Avenir AI
Co-founder
Co-Founder · San Francisco Bay Area · 2025 – Present
2025
Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
MIT delta v Fellowship · 2024
2024
UMass Memorial Health
Digital Health Researcher · Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States · 2023 – 2024
2023
CVC Capital Partners
Private Equity · Paris, Île-de-France, France · 2023
2023
Rothschild & Co
M&A - TMT, Technology Focus · Paris, Île-de-France, France · 2022 – 2023
2022
Citi
M&A · Paris, Île-de-France, France · 2022
2022
BNP Paribas
Fintech Investment · Paris, Île-de-France, France · 2020 – 2021
2020

Bio

I made my first sale at 10 and never stopped loving the craft of building. I’m a proud nerd - my people are nerds who ship real-world change. After MIT research on tech innovation for workplace wellbeing, I left Private Equity to start Avenir AI. In PE and IB, and through the early fintech revolution, I saw software rewire finance. My take is that legacy industries deserve the same overhaul - healthcare first. Also, I’m a gym rat with a 590 lb x 12 hack squat PR, I find my peace with kitesurfing and wakeboarding :)