Dos Bakhytzhan is the co-founder and CEO of Nace.AI, a company developing specialized artificial intelligence models for professional workflows. In May 2026, it announced a $21.5 million seed round led by Walden Catalyst, with participation from General Catalyst. Readers may also know him as Bakhytzhan Dos in Kazakhstan’s media or as Dos Baha, the name used on Nace.AI’s website. (nace.ai, forbes.kz)
Who Dos Bakhytzhan is
Bakhytzhan’s career spans several kinds of software: a dating application, tools for online merchants, a consumer AI app and enterprise systems. Across those projects, the customer changed from an individual smartphone user to a business with its own documents, procedures and requirements. (forbes.kz)
Nace.AI is based in Palo Alto. Its official press information identifies three co-founders: Bakhytzhan as CEO, Zhanibek Datbayev as CTO and Sudha Valluru as COO. The company focuses on specialized models for professional work. (nace.ai)
Dos Bakhytzhan’s education and early ventures
Bakhytzhan comes from Bayanaul in Kazakhstan’s Pavlodar region. He enrolled in an IT programme at the Kazakh-British Technical University. In 2012, during his first year, he began working in financial analysis at HSBC. The following year, he left that role to establish a web studio with friends. His early experience therefore combined financial work with building digital products for customers. (digitalbusiness.kz)
In 2016, he launched the online dating app Blindime. In May 2021, he and Yerbol Kopzhasar established Adapt, a product aimed at small businesses seeking to sell online. The two founders appeared in Forbes Kazakhstan’s 30 Under 30 selection in 2022. (forbes.kz)
The team subsequently developed GoatChat.AI. In March 2025, Bakhytzhan announced the app’s sale to Spanish media group Newry Global Media. The transaction’s value was not disclosed. MOST Ventures, an investor in the app’s parent company Adaptive Plus, also commented on the sale. (digitalbusiness.kz)
Building Nace.AI
The company’s official profile dates its founding to 2024. Its focus includes audit, financial processes and compliance: work in which an organisation’s internal policies shape the required result. Nace.AI describes MetaModel as its technology for producing small models adapted to particular enterprise workflows. Human specialists retain responsibility for final validation. (nace.ai)
Selling to those organisations required a different process from distributing a mobile app. In an August 2026 interview, Bakhytzhan said that securing a contract with an unnamed Big Four firm had involved roughly ten months and thirty meetings. He reported three fully onboarded customers, with two further organisations in the onboarding process at that time. (digitalbusiness.kz)
More founder profiles from RAEM: Sanzhar Myrzagalym: who is the founder of Rette and Alibek Dostiyarov: who is the founder of Perceptis.
Products as of October 2026
Nace.AI introduced several products during autumn 2026. Drex appeared in September, followed by Nace Document Intelligence in October. On 19 October, the company announced Drex Max, a multimodal model designed to work with screens, text and visual information when performing computer tasks. (nace.ai)
The product family addresses successive parts of a professional workflow. Information first has to be understood from a document or interface; the system then needs to choose an appropriate action. In its Drex Max announcement, Nace.AI emphasizes decision-making for computer use. That direction extends the company’s broader work on models tailored to specific professional processes. (nace.ai)
Funding and the next stage
Nace.AI’s announcement of 5 May 2026 names Walden Catalyst as the lead investor in the $21.5 million round. General Catalyst participated alongside other investors. The company said the funding would support MetaModel, its family of specialized models and systems for finance, audit and compliance. (nace.ai)
In June, Kursiv reported that Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang had joined Nace.AI’s investors. Bakhytzhan discussed investor interest in the company’s enterprise AI direction in comments to the publication. (kz.kursiv.media)
Digital Business reported cumulative funding of $26.5 million in its 26 August 2026 publication. Bakhytzhan also described a team of thirty people. He described the United States as the company’s principal market and linked its next stage to winning more customers and increasing recurring revenue. The product announcements that followed in October provided further public milestones in that development. (digitalbusiness.kz, nace.ai)
Timeline
- 2012 — Began working in financial analysis at HSBC while studying at KBTU. (digitalbusiness.kz)
- 2013 — Established a web studio with friends. (digitalbusiness.kz)
- 2016 — Launched Blindime. (forbes.kz)
- May 2021 — Co-founded Adapt with Yerbol Kopzhasar. (forbes.kz)
- 2024 — Nace.AI was founded. (nace.ai)
- March 2025 — Announced GoatChat.AI’s sale to Newry Global Media. (digitalbusiness.kz)
- May 2026 — Nace.AI announced its $21.5 million seed round. (nace.ai)
- October 2026 — Nace.AI introduced Drex Max. (nace.ai)
Frequently asked questions
Who is Dos Bakhytzhan?
He is Nace.AI’s co-founder and CEO and previously worked on Blindime, Adapt and GoatChat.AI. The company’s international website presents him as Dos Baha. (nace.ai, forbes.kz)
Who are his Nace.AI co-founders?
The official website names Zhanibek Datbayev and Sudha Valluru, responsible for technology and operations respectively. (nace.ai)
How much funding has Nace.AI raised?
The company announced a $21.5 million round in May 2026. Digital Business reported cumulative funding of $26.5 million in its 26 August 2026 publication. (nace.ai, digitalbusiness.kz)
What does Nace.AI build?
It develops specialized AI models and systems for documents, organisational policies and professional workflows, including finance and audit. (nace.ai)
