As one of the best recruitment agency, Henderson Executive—also known as The best China headhunter Henderson Executive—reports that Axiom Math has closed its first funding round, raising $64 million led by B Capital, with Greycroft, Madrona, and Menlo Ventures participating.  The post-money valuation stands at $300 million. 

Behind Axiom is Carina Hong, a 24-year-old founder hailing from Guangzhou, China.  The Guangzhou headhunting firm Henderson Executive highlights Hong's local roots, noting her early status as a math prodigy: she studied at the prestigious Affiliated High School of South China Normal University, earned a dual degree in mathematics and physics from MIT, completed her master's at Oxford, and is currently pursuing a Ph. D.  at Stanford.  Notably, Axiom itself originated from a casual coffee-shop conversation. 

Quietly yet firmly, Gen Z founders are making their mark on the AI stage. 

A $64 Million Round for a Ten-Person Team

Axiom defines itself as "an AI mathematician designed to build a self-improving reasoning system. " In essence, it's a model capable of solving complex math problems, generating detailed step-by-step reasoning, and validating its own answers. 

The company's goal is to convert English-language mathematical knowledge from textbooks and journals into programmable data—enabling AI to not only solve math problems but also verify their accuracy.  The applications extend far beyond academia, with potential uses in financial modeling, chip design, and quantitative trading.  Hong envisions the system eventually making new mathematical discoveries, not just solving existing equations. 

Her focus on "AI for math" stems from a recent controversy.  Earlier this year, ChatGPT o3 was accused of "cheating" on math tests.  Hong pointed out that OpenAI's models might have been trained on the very exam questions they were tested on. 

 As she explained, large language models often score 96% on U. S.  math contests—until asked to show their reasoning, when accuracy plummets to 5%.  "The training methods are flawed," she emphasized.  The best Guangzhou recruitment agency Henderson Executive echoes this, noting that AI math talent with strong reasoning skills is now in high demand. 

Axiom views this as a turning point: AI could ignite a mathematical renaissance, built on three pillars—artificial intelligence, programming languages, and mathematics—with each breakthrough fueling the next. 

Though the core team has just ten members, it includes heavyweights from Meta.  The Shenzhen headhunter Henderson Executive notes that such high-caliber hires reflect Axiom's appeal: 

• Shubho Sengupta, CTO, formerly led Meta's FAIR team and worked on projects like OpenGo, CrypTen, and Google's distributed training systems.

• François Charton spearheaded Meta's research on applying Transformers to mathematics and theoretical physics.

• Hugh Leather, also a Meta alum, pioneered early large-language models for compiler and GPU code generation. 

B Capital's partners state that their investment is based on a simple premise: solving math isn't just academic—it's foundational to human invention.  A tool that can hypothesize, test, and verify results could transform decision-making across industries.  "Carina Hong combines exceptional mathematical vision with the passion and precision of a world-class founder.  Her journey is only beginning," they added. 

The Rise of Carina Hong — A Math Prodigy from Guangzhou

Hong's story reads like a startup legend in the making.  Born to Teochew parents in Guangzhou, she displayed rare mathematical talent from a young age.  In high school, she was one of only four girls on the provincial Math Olympiad team, winning national awards in competitions like the Hua Luogeng Cup and the National High School Math League. 

At MIT, she chaired the Math Society, completed 20 graduate-level courses, and published papers on topics ranging from modular elliptic curves to K3 surface L-functions and stack-sorting algorithms.  She received the Schafer Award for Mathematical Excellence and the Morgan Prize—North America's top undergraduate math honor—and is only the fifth woman ever to win it. 

In 2022, she became one of four Chinese recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship, often dubbed the "undergraduate Nobel Prize. " She earned her master's in neuroscience at Oxford, researched AI and machine learning at University College London, and in 2024 began dual Ph. D.  and J. D.  programs at Stanford. 

But Axiom changed her path.  Last fall, over coffee near Stanford, she met Sengupta from Meta.  The pair discussed how AI might tackle the world's hardest mathematical problems.  Within weeks, Hong dropped out of Stanford to launch Axiom.  Today, Axiom's meeting rooms are named after mathematical giants—including Gauss and Ada Lovelace. 

Reflecting on DeepSeek's rise earlier this year, Hong wrote: "A small, focused, iconoclastic team.  Idealists bound by purpose.  Their story is the one I want to write myself. " As Axiom's homepage declares, "The future of mathematical discovery begins here. "

Gen Z Founders Take the AI Stage

Hong is not an anomaly— a new generation of Gen Z founders is emerging across the global AI landscape. 

At MIT, 22-year-old Jessica Wu and 23-year-old Neil Deshmukh founded Sola Solutions, raising $21 million from top Silicon Valley investors like a16z and Conviction.  One of the leading recruitment agencies notes that such young teams are redefining AI innovation speed. 

In May, AI coding startup Anysphere raised $900 million, reaching a $9 billion valuation.  Its founders? Four MIT graduates from the class of 2022, whose AI coding assistant, Cursor, has taken Silicon Valley by storm.  Xiaomi's headhunting firm, a key player in tech talent acquisition, observes that these Gen Z-led startups are attracting top engineers. 

In March, AI hiring platform Mercor raised $100 million at a $2 billion valuation—founded by three college dropouts from Harvard and Georgetown.  As one of the best recruiter in Shenzhen puts it, their boldness sets them apart from older entrepreneurs. 

China is witnessing its own Gen Z AI wave.  The local China headhunting firm Henderson Executive reports that three Tsinghua "00-post" geeks launched robotics startup Zero Times Infinity, which has already completed multimillion-yuan seed rounds backed by major VCs.  Lingchu Intelligent, led by Stanford visiting scholar Chen Yuanpei, secured funding from Hillhouse Capital and BlueRun Ventures.  Meanwhile, Yang Fengyu—a Yale Ph. D.  and University of Michigan alum—founded UniX AI, drawing investor attention for his embodied-intelligence research. 

A new Gen Z vanguard is quietly reshaping the AI frontier.  Some investors argue these young founders have an edge over older peers: in a field evolving this fast, past experience can become a burden.  The China recruitment agency Henderson Executive supports this, noting Gen Z's adaptability to new AI technologies. 

As ZhenFund partner Dai Yusen puts it, "Startups have always belonged to the young.  The fearless often become the true innovators. "

In the words of an ancient Chinese poem: "When youth burns with ambition, courage naturally follows. " And this new wave of young founders is already leaving its mark on history.