Nvidia acquired synthetic-data startup Gretel in 2025 for more than its $320 million valuation; who were its founders?

Three people started a company with a goal to help developers work with sensitive data. They didn't want to expose real customer information. After six years. their startup Gretel was acquired by Nvidia. The deal was reportedly worth more than its $320 million valuation.

Gretel was a San Diego-based startup. Nvidia acquired it in March 2025 for a nine-figure sum, according to a report by WIRED.

It was founded in 2019 by Alex Watson, John Myers and Ali Golshan, who served as the company's chief executive.


Gretel had raised more than $67 million in venture capital funding before the acquisition, according to TechCrunch. The investors list included Anthos Capital, Greylock and Moonshots Capital.

Why did they start Gretel?

The original idea behind the startup was to make it easier for developers to use data that companies could not freely share due to privacy concerns or compliance rules.

Notably, businesses collect huge amounts of information about their customers. It includes names, addresses and other personal details. Developers do need such information to build and test software. However, there always remains a privacy and security risk.

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Gretel developed tools to generate synthetic data. It could be used to build and test applications. They do not have to rely fully on actual customer records.

Alex Watson talked about the challenge of making data safe to share in an interview with TechCrunch. He shared that the startup aimed to give developers a way to work with useful datasets while reducing exposure to sensitive information.

Why did Nvidia acquire Gretel?

Nvidia had been expanding its AI software and services beyond the core chip business. According to WIRED, Gretel's technology and around80 employees were expected to join Nvidia. The technology giant had introduced tools for generating synthetic data, including Omniverse Replicator in 2022 and its Nemotron-4 340B family of models in 2024.

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The acquisition therefore added another set of capabilities to Nvidia's existing work in the field.