Gokce Guven
Gokce Guven | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | May 18 |
| Citizenship | Turkish |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley; MIT; University of the Arts London |
| Occupation |
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| Known for | Founder of Kalder; AI and spatial intelligence |
| Awards | Forbes 30 Under 30, 2025 |
Gökçe Güven is a Turkish entrepreneur and technology executive known for founding Kalder, a rewards monetization technology company acquired by Luumis. She was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2025 in the Marketing & Advertising category. Her professional experience includes product roles at OpenSea, Robinhood, and Celo, as well as participation in programs at Accel and Kleiner Perkins and research at Stanford University.
In 2026, Güven pleaded guilty to securities fraud in the United States in connection with fundraising activities at Kalder. Prosecutors alleged that she misrepresented the company's financial performance and commercial partnerships to investors while raising approximately US$7 million. On October 30, 2026, she was sentenced to 25 months in prison and ordered to pay approximately US$6.7 million in forfeiture and restitution. The case also prompted separate civil enforcement proceedings by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[1]
Career
Early career and education
Güven studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, where she also pursued international business at the Haas School of Business. During her time at Berkeley, she became involved with Blockchain at Berkeley, serving as an engineering lead and developer between 2018 and 2020.
At Blockchain at Berkeley, she contributed to Harmonio, a decentralized finance application designed to provide microloans and merchant services to micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries. Her other projects included blockchain-based carbon credits, voting, and lending applications.
She also conducted research at Stanford University's Growth Mindset Lab, led by psychologist Carol Dweck, between 2016 and 2017. Her work included qualitative interviews examining fixed and growth mindsets among corporate leaders and students, as well as statistical analysis using R.
Güven subsequently participated in the entrepreneurship program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and studied sustainable design at the University of the Arts London. At Central Saint Martins, she launched The Issue, a sustainable fashion brand focused on design and fashion supply chains.
Technology and product roles
Between 2019 and 2021, Güven worked at Celo, where she joined the founding team building Valora, a mobile cryptocurrency wallet. Her work explored the potential of global digital currencies independent of local political and economic systems.
In 2020, she worked as a technologist at IDEO CoLab in the San Francisco Bay Area, developing proof-of-concept projects and decentralized applications. These included concepts for international uncollateralized micro-lending and blockchain-based smart city applications.
Güven was also selected as a Kleiner Perkins Fellow and an Accel Scholar. She later joined Robinhood's Card and Payments team as a product professional from 2020 to 2021, followed by a product role at OpenSea from 2021 to 2022, where she worked on products related to the creator and ownership economy.
Kalder
In June 2022, Güven founded Kalder, a technology company focused on helping brands monetize their rewards and loyalty programs. As founder and chief executive officer, she developed a platform that enabled retailers, financial institutions, and sports organizations to commercialize rewards in a manner comparable to airline frequent-flyer miles.
The company's approach aimed to create additional revenue streams from existing customer loyalty and marketing programs. Kalder received backing from venture capital firms including JVP, Accel, 8VC, and Emergence, as well as individual investors including footballer Harry Maguire.
Güven's work at Kalder received media attention, including coverage by Forbes and reporting on the company's $7 million seed funding round. In 2025, she was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Marketing & Advertising.
In July 2026, Kalder was acquired by Luumis, concluding Güven's tenure as its CEO.
Artificial intelligence and spatial intelligence
In September 2026, Güven began a new venture in stealth mode in New York, focused on building technology to enable vision-language-action models.
Her stated focus involves combining construction artificial intelligence with physical-world data collection to develop spatial intelligence. The approach centers on collecting structured data from the physical environment to support the development and training of machine intelligence systems.
Controversies
Securities fraud case
In November 2025, Gökçe Güven, founder and former chief executive officer of Kalder, was arrested in the United States in connection with allegations of financial fraud and immigration-related misconduct. On January 29, 2026, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced a superseding indictment charging her with securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, and aggravated identity theft.[2]
According to federal prosecutors, Güven misrepresented Kalder's financial performance and commercial partnerships while raising approximately US$7 million from more than a dozen venture capital investors. Prosecutors alleged that investor presentations overstated the company's recurring revenue, reporting approximately US$1.2 million in annual recurring revenue by March 2024, and claimed that dozens of brands were using the platform when some had only participated in limited pilot programs or had no commercial agreements. The prosecution also alleged that Güven maintained two sets of financial records, one containing the company's actual financial information and another containing inflated figures presented to investors. Prosecutors further alleged that she submitted fabricated documents and digitally signed reference letters without the knowledge or consent of the purported signatories as part of an application for an O-1A extraordinary-ability visa.[3]
On May 15, 2026, Güven pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud in federal court in New York. As part of the plea agreement, she agreed to forfeit nearly US$7 million in proceeds from the scheme. The criminal case resulted in a guilty plea to securities fraud; the other charges from the superseding indictment were not convictions. On October 30, 2026, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan sentenced Güven to 25 months in prison and ordered her to pay US$6,717,997 in forfeiture and restitution. The Department of Justice also stated that her O-1A visa had been revoked.[4]
Separately, on October 2, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil enforcement action against Güven and Kalder, alleging violations of federal securities laws in connection with the company's approximately US$6.7 million fundraising. Güven consented to a proposed settlement that included a permanent injunction against specified securities-law violations and a six-year bar on serving as an officer or director of a public company, subject to court approval. The proposed settlement was made without an admission of the SEC's civil allegations.[5]
The case attracted attention in the technology and startup industry because Güven had previously been featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Marketing & Advertising in 2025. It also renewed discussion about the due diligence and verification processes used by startup investors and business publications when assessing young entrepreneurs and high-growth technology companies.[6][7]
References
- ↑ "Luumis buys Kalder, the loyalty startup founded by Gökçe Güven". Dealroom.co. Retrieved 14 November 2026.
- ↑ "Forbes 30 Under 30 alum Gokce Guven sentenced to 25 months in US prison for fraud". Connected to India. Retrieved 14 November 2026.
- ↑ "Gokce Guven sentenced to 25 months in prison". Grit Daily. Retrieved 14 November 2026.
- ↑ "26-year-old woman founder of fintech startup and Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient charged with fraud and lying to get 'Extraordinary Ability' visa in US". The Times of India. 3 February 2026. Retrieved 14 November 2026.
- ↑ Bozkurt, Abdullah (16 February 2026). "Turkish woman's Silicon Valley fairy tale built on fraud, forgery and identity theft in the US". Nordic Monitor. Retrieved 14 November 2026.
- ↑ "Gokce Guven indictment: 5 things to know as Kalder founder charged in $7 million fraud case". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 14 November 2026.
- ↑ "Gökçe Güven Used the Same False Numbers for Investors and Her Visa". Hannah Howell. 7 October 2026. Retrieved 14 November 2026.