Model ML Appoints Alex Kayyal as Chief Financial Officer

Model ML today announced that Alex Kayyal has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer, deepening the company’s leadership bench as Model ML continues to scale globally and enter its next phase of growth.  

Kayyal has spent more than two decades helping high-growth technology companies scale as an executive, investor, and board member. He joins Model ML from The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD), where he first joined its board as an independent director and later became CFO, leading its global finance organization. 

Before The Trade Desk, Kayyal spent nearly a decade in senior leadership roles at Salesforce, including SVP and Managing Partner of Salesforce Ventures. There he helped build a global investment team and oversaw more than $5 billion of capital deployed across over 300 companies. He went on to become a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, where he sat on the firm's investment committee. He began his career at Merrill Lynch, first in the office of the CFO and then in IPO and M&A advisory. He has served on more than ten boards, from early-stage startups to public companies. 

"Alex has seen what it takes to scale technology companies from every side of the table: as an operator, investor, investment banker and board member," said Chaz Englander, Co-Founder and CEO of Model ML. "We're growing quickly across markets and working with global institutions. Alex's experience will be invaluable as we build Model ML for the long term." 

As CFO, Kayyal will oversee Model ML's finance, strategic planning and investor relations functions, working closely with the executive team to support decision-making, capital allocation, and long-term value creation for the firm’s clients and investors. 

"Finance is one of the largest market opportunities globally," said Alex Kayyal, CFO of Model ML. "In just 18 months Model ML's platform has fundamentally transformed how finance professionals work, and its adoption at several global banks and leading professional services institutions stands as a testament to that. I've seen the speed Chaz and his team are moving at, and that velocity continues to increase exponentially. Model ML is moving faster than any other company I have seen or invested in in my entire career, and the level of ambition is truly unmatched. I couldn't be more excited to join Chaz and the team on this journey to help grow Model ML into a lasting global business." 

In the first 18 months, Model ML has grown to almost 200 employees globally, with 9 offices across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The Model ML platform serves thousands of customers across the globe daily, and that number continues to grow exponentially. The company expects to continue its rapid expansion in 2026 across all markets. 

Kayyal joins the company effective immediately. 

About Model ML 
Model ML is an AI operating system for financial and professional services firms. It automates complex workflows across research, due diligence, financial analysis and document creation, and sends each task to the AI model best suited to it. Founded in 2024, Model ML works with leading banks, asset managers and advisory firms worldwide.