Ari Malik

Ari Malik is the Founder of Salient, an AI workflow automation platform for lenders, and is currently based in Dayton, Ohio. He established the company in early 2023 and participated in the Y Combinator accelerator program, scaling the software to serve major United States automotive lenders. Previously, Malik worked in sales finance at Tesla and served as a venture capitalist at DST Global, an investment firm managing over $50 billion in assets. He focused on consumer internet investments ranging from $100,000 to $5 million per deal, following an earlier corporate finance role as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and Philosophy from Columbia University. His professional background bridges institutional finance and technology operations with a current focus on deploying artificial intelligence within the commercial credit sector.