Kerry Wang

Partner Accel

Last Reviewed: September 18, 2026

Executive Summary

Kerry Wang is a Partner at Accel, where she has invested at seed and Series A stage in AI, cloud and SaaS companies since joining in 2025. She arrived as an operator rather than a career investor: she co-founded Searchlight, an enterprise AI recruiting company, at twenty-two with her twin sister Anna, took it through Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch — where Accel first met her at Alumni Demo Day — raised from Accel, and sold the business to Multiverse in 2024, staying on to lead the integration and the launch of a new AI product for the US market. She holds a BS in Human Biology and an MS in Computer Science from Stanford.

Career Highlights

• Partner at Accel since 2025, investing at seed and Series A across AI, cloud and SaaS.
• Co-founded Searchlight.ai in 2018 at twenty-two and led it as CEO.
• Took Searchlight through Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch and subsequently raised from Accel.
• Sold Searchlight to Multiverse in 2024, then led the technology and team integration and the launch of Multiverse’s new US AI product.
• Graduated from Stanford with distinction, with a BS in Human Biology and an MS in Computer Science.
• Former Product Sales Lead at Google and management consultant at McKinsey.

Professional Journey

Wang studied at Stanford, taking a BS with distinction in Human Biology concentrating on innovation, entrepreneurship and human behaviour, alongside an MS in Computer Science specializing in human-computer interaction. She worked as a management consultant at McKinsey, as a Product Sales Lead at Google, and taught JavaScript as an instructor with Code for Cape Town in South Africa.

In 2018, at twenty-two, she co-founded Searchlight with her twin sister Anna. The company addressed a problem that is both technically interesting and socially loaded: hiring decisions are made largely on résumés and interviews, both of which are weak predictors of how someone will actually perform, and both of which encode a great deal about appearance and background that has nothing to do with capability. Wang has connected this directly to her own experience, describing how growing up as a twin taught her how readily people are judged on how they look. Searchlight built enterprise AI software to predict quality of hire from evidence — structured reference data and performance signals — rather than from impression.

The company went through Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch, where Accel first encountered her at Alumni Demo Day, and Accel subsequently backed it. In 2024 Multiverse, the apprenticeship and professional training company, acquired Searchlight, and Wang led the integration of the technology and team, going on to launch Multiverse’s new AI product for the US market.

She joined Accel as a Partner in 2025, investing at the earliest stages across AI, cloud and SaaS. The firm positions her as a first call for founders turning an insight into a company, which reflects the specific thing a recently exited founder brings to early-stage investing: direct and recent experience of the distance between an idea that sounds correct and a product that people will actually use.

Education

Stanford University

MS, Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction

Stanford University

BS, Human Biology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Human Behavior (with distinction)