Before joining Embark Ventures, Yipeng Zhao worked as a research statistician at UC San Diego studying econometrics, Big Data, and financial risk, then moved into cross-border private equity at ZMXY Global Investment, where he helped build the firm's Los Angeles venture arm; he later became a Kauffman Fellow (Class 22) under Peter Lee, describes himself online as a "PhD dropout @UCSD," and now sits on the advisory committee for UCLA's Magnify incubator. At Embark, he's linked to hands-on science and engineering startups like Field AI, Machina Labs, Parallel Systems, Kebotix, Via Separations, CellFE, Elemind, and QSimulate, and has spoken publicly about early-stage investing in a dedicated YouTube conversation.