Herman Narula

Narula was born in India and moved to Britain at the age of three.⁠[1]

Narula studied computer science at Girton College, University of Cambridge, and met Rob Whitehead, a computer science student at Robinson College, at a dissertation review in the Cambridge Computer Laboratory. In 2012, months before Narula graduated, the two founded Improbable to build immersive virtual worlds; Peter Lipka, who studied at Imperial College LondonImperial College LondonImperial College London is a university in London, England, United Kingdom. Formed under a royal charter in 1907, it focuses on science, technology and medicine and is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry, joined soon after to lead operations and business strategy.⁠[2][3]

In 2015 Improbable raised $20 million from Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry, Horizons Ventures and Temasek.⁠[3]

On June 3, 2015, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) published the podcast episode “a16z Podcast: Tech Trends Changing Gaming” on its website, featuring Narula, then CEO of Improbable, Double Fine Productions founder and CEO Tim Schafer and Double Fine COO Justin Bailey, hosted by a16z’s Sonal Chokshi. The episode discussed how internet-driven crowdfunding, online discovery and direct interaction with fans affect the creative process and the studio model, along with virtual reality, systems technology and user modding. It was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019.⁠[4][5]

On June 4, 2015, a16z published the podcast episode “a16z Podcast: The Cool Stuff Only Happens at Scale” on its website, featuring Narula and Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityStanford University is a research university in California founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1885 and opened in 1891.Open the full entry professor Vijay Pande of a16z, with a16z’s Chris DixonChris DixonChris Dixon is a programmer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, and the founder and managing partner of a16z crypto. He co-founded SiteAdvisor and Hunch, helped create Founder Collective, and later joined Andreessen Horowitz, investing in technology companies such as Coinbase. He is also the author of Read Write Own and has long written about blockchains, network ownership, the open internet, and the combination of AI and crypto.Open the full entry. The episode discussed how distributed computing frameworks such as Hadoop and Spark process “big data” but fall short in modeling rare or complex events such as disaster scenarios, and how simulations merging real-world sensor data might answer such questions. The title comes from Narula’s view that “the cool stuff only happens at scale.” The episode was uploaded to the a16z YouTube channel on January 1, 2019.⁠[6][7]

From 2016 to 2021 Improbable built large-scale virtual world technology for gaming, defense and entertainment. In May 2017 it raised $502 million (£390 million) in a round led by SoftBank, at a valuation of more than $1 billion, reportedly the largest investment ever made in a European tech startup at the time. Its Morpheus technology later supported ScavLab, with more than 4,000 players, and metaverse events for K-pop artist AleXa attended by 1,450 fans.⁠[3][2]

SoftBank received a non-controlling stake in the round and Deep Nishar joined Improbable’s board; the company had nearly 200 employees, and Narula, then CEO, said, “This is only just the beginning of where we need to go.” He also said, “Many of my early co-founders were foreign nationals that came to study in places like Cambridge and Oxford.”⁠[1]

From 2022 Improbable shifted to venture building in Web3, AI and the metaverse, spinning out internal teams and incubating new ventures from the ground up. Narula has focused on how AI, Web3 and the metaverse may affect human decision-making and society.⁠[3]

Improbable: Official website: https://improbable.io/ (opens in a new window).⁠[3]