Table of Contents
- Koala founders and financing at a glance
- Who is Tido Carriero?
- Who is Matthew Shwery?
- Who is Netto Farah?
- Why the founders built Koala
- What Koala does
- What makes the founder thesis distinctive?
- Koala financing and transaction history
- What the latest milestone was intended to change
- Founder and company timeline
- The founders' public thesis
- Strengths, risks and unresolved questions
- Evidence to watch over the next 12 to 18 months
- Frequently asked questions
Tido Carriero, Matthew Shwery and Netto Farah founded Koala, the buyer-intent and sales-execution platform acquired by cursor business now serving b2b sales, growth and revenue-operations teams. Tido Carriero is Co-founder and former CEO; Matthew Shwery is Co-founder; Netto Farah is Co-founder.
The latest material financing milestone covered here is the Cursor acquisition, dated 2025-07-18. The relevant total is $20M raised before acquisition, labelled as Koala shut down its standalone service on 30 September 2025; acquisition terms were undisclosed. It is company-level capital or transaction value—not founder net worth.
Authentic Koala website evidence captured on 21 July 2026.
Koala founders and financing at a glance
| Field | Verified information |
|---|---|
| Founding team | Tido Carriero, Matthew Shwery and Netto Farah |
| Current or documented roles | Tido Carriero: Co-founder and former CEO; Matthew Shwery: Co-founder; Netto Farah: Co-founder |
| Company | Koala — getkoala.com |
| Founded | 2022 |
| Headquarters or operating scope | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Product category | Buyer-intent and sales-execution platform acquired by Cursor |
| Primary customer | B2B sales, growth and revenue-operations teams |
| Latest financing milestone | the Cursor acquisition, 2025-07-18 |
| Total or transaction value | $20M raised before acquisition — Koala shut down its standalone service on 30 September 2025; acquisition terms were undisclosed |
| Public status | Privately held or part of an acquirer |
| Last verified | 21 July 2026 |
Who is Tido Carriero?
Tido Carriero is Co-founder and former CEO at Koala. Tido Carriero's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.
Founder profile: Connect with Tido Carriero on LinkedIn.
Tido Carriero in an attributed Product School speaker portrait.
In the founding team, Tido Carriero contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind Koala. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.
Who is Matthew Shwery?
Matthew Shwery is Co-founder at Koala. Matthew Shwery's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.
Founder profile: Connect with Matthew Shwery on LinkedIn.
Matthew Shwery in his verified public GitHub profile portrait.
In the founding team, Matthew Shwery contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind Koala. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.
Who is Netto Farah?
Netto Farah is Co-founder at Koala. Netto Farah's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.
Founder profile: Connect with Netto Farah on LinkedIn.
Netto Farah in his verified public GitHub profile portrait.
In the founding team, Netto Farah contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind Koala. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.
Why the founders built Koala
Carriero, Shwery and Farah founded Koala after working at Segment, where they saw how difficult it was for sales teams to act on fragmented product and website signals. They built a rep-focused platform that translated intent data into prioritized accounts, contextual plays and timely human outreach.
This is documented company history plus editorial assessment. It does not establish private motivations beyond what the founders and company have said publicly.
What Koala does
Koala combined website and product intent, account qualification, enrichment, AI research and trigger-based sales plays. The standalone product is no longer available: Cursor acquired Koala in July 2025, and the service shut down on 30 September 2025.
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What makes the founder thesis distinctive?
The CSV incorrectly attributes Koala to Ryan Yang. Company announcements and the founders’ acquisition posts identify Tido Carriero, Matthew Shwery and Netto Farah as the founding team.
Our assessment is that durable differentiation must show up in customer outcomes, workflow adoption, reliable data movement and lower operating cost—not only in feature count or AI branding.
Koala financing and transaction history
| Announcement date | Round or instrument | Amount | Lead or named participants | Reported use | Evidence status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Seed | $5M | Afore Capital and investors | Build the initial product-led sales platform | Company and press-reported |
| 13 February 2025 | Series A | $15M; $20M total | CRV with HubSpot Ventures, Recall Capital and Afore | Scale the AI-powered GTM engine | Company-confirmed |
| 18 July 2025 | Acquisition | Undisclosed | Cursor | Bring the Koala team and technology into Cursor enterprise products | Company-confirmed |
| — | Current qualified figure | $20M raised before acquisition | — | — | Koala shut down its standalone service on 30 September 2025; acquisition terms were undisclosed |
The headline uses the Cursor acquisition because it is the clearest recent milestone in the verified record. Different instruments are not silently combined: acquisition consideration, IPO proceeds, primary funding and secondary liquidity have different meanings.
What the latest milestone was intended to change
Public statements connect the milestone to some combination of product investment, AI capability, geographic expansion, hiring, acquisitions or shareholder liquidity. Those plans are attributed intentions, not proof that each outcome occurred. Evidence should include shipped capabilities, adoption, retention, unit economics and customer results after the transaction.
Founder and company timeline
| Period | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Carriero, Shwery and Farah found Koala after their work at Segment. |
| 2022–2024 | Koala develops buyer-intent alerts, enrichment and rep-focused sales plays. |
| February 2025 | The company raises a $15M Series A, bringing total funding to $20M. |
| July 2025 | Cursor acquires Koala and the founders announce the product sunset. |
| 30 September 2025 | Koala’s standalone service shuts down. |
The founders' public thesis
Across the available company history, the founders argue that customer data becomes valuable when operating teams can turn it into timely, coordinated action. The exact emphasis differs by company—category creation, accessibility, data ownership, real-time infrastructure or AI-assisted execution—but the test is similar: can a customer make better decisions without adding hidden complexity?
Strengths, risks and unresolved questions
Visible strengths
- A founding thesis attached to a recurring and measurable marketing workflow.
- Product history and financing evidence available from primary sources.
- A platform broad enough to influence data, orchestration and customer communication.
Material risks
- Koala is no longer an operating standalone product, so buyers should evaluate migration options rather than attempt a new deployment.
- Historical intent-data workflows involved privacy, consent and suppression obligations.
- The acquisition price and transaction structure were not disclosed.
Questions buyers and researchers should ask
- Which founder roles are current, and which describe historical service?
- How is incremental customer or revenue impact measured against a control?
- What data, consent, model and deliverability controls constrain automated action?
- Which transaction amounts were primary capital, secondary liquidity or acquisition consideration?
- What implementation resources are required before the platform produces reliable value?
Evidence to watch over the next 12 to 18 months
Watch for independently explainable retention and expansion, transparent AI evaluation, successful migrations, product delivery tied to the announced financing purpose and current executive-role disclosures. For public companies, filings provide a stronger operating signal than promotional customer counts alone. For private companies, future financing announcements should identify transaction composition clearly.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Koala?
Koala was founded by Tido Carriero, Matthew Shwery and Netto Farah.
What does Koala do?
Koala provides buyer-intent and sales-execution platform acquired by cursor capabilities for b2b sales, growth and revenue-operations teams.
What is Koala's latest financing milestone?
The latest milestone verified for this profile is the Cursor acquisition, dated 2025-07-18.
How much funding has Koala raised?
The qualified figure used here is $20M raised before acquisition. Its status is Koala shut down its standalone service on 30 September 2025; acquisition terms were undisclosed; it should not be interpreted as founder wealth.
What should buyers verify?
Buyers should test data integration, consent controls, measurement, implementation effort, support, exportability and the limits placed on automated or AI-generated actions.
Tolu S.
Associate Director
Evidence-led product reviews and founder profiles for search, marketing, authority, and AI visibility teams.
