Former Swiggy and Zomato executives Anuj Rathi and Prashant Parashar have launched Profound, an artificial intelligence startup that aims to provide every professional with an AI-powered representative. According to reports from Business Standard and Moneycontrol, the company has raised $1.5 million in seed funding and opened early access to its first group of users after several months of product development and customer research. The round was led by Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital, with participation from technology founders and entrepreneurs including Swiggy cofounders Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy; Zomato cofounder Pankaj Chaddah; and Razorpay CEO and cofounder Harshil Mathur. Other investors include Kunal Shah, global head of WhatsApp; and Bhuvan Gupta, cofounder of OfBusiness.
At Profound, every professional receives an AI Rep that begins with a 30-minute voice conversation. According to the company, the AI Rep develops a continuously evolving understanding of a person's experience, expertise, judgment, working style, ambitions and context. The technology works in the background on behalf of professionals, identifies relevant opportunities, facilitates meaningful introductions and helps build stronger professional relationships and careers. As reported by Moneycontrol, the startup is building what it calls an "AI Rep" - a voice-first AI companion that understands a professional's experience, judgement, work style and career goals before helping them discover opportunities, build networks and connect with recruiters. "Representation and connections are the two hero use cases. Hiring is the most important connection, but this goes far beyond jobs," Rathi told Moneycontrol. "The proposition is simple: always be ready. Your AI rep is always working on your behalf."
The startup is initially targeting AI-first white-collar professionals across engineering, product, design, marketing and sales roles. According to Moneycontrol, the platform will initially remain free for professionals, with monetisation expected to come from recruitment services and premium AI features, including tools to help users build their professional brand. "There's a growing gap between how good someone is at their job and how easy they are to find. Resumes and LinkedIn profiles capture titles, not judgement," Rahul Chowdhri, partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, said. "Profound uses a voice-first, AI-native approach to build an always-on AI Rep that represents professionals with far greater depth." The company expects customer acquisition to be driven largely by network effects rather than aggressive marketing. "Our biggest investment is talent because we're using AI to build an AI that solves a very human problem," Rathi said.
The seed round saw participation from technology founders and entrepreneurs, including Swiggy cofounders Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy; Zomato cofounder Pankaj Chaddah; and Razorpay CEO and cofounder Harshal Mathur. As reported by Business Standard, other investors include Kunal Shah, global head of WhatsApp; and Bhuvan Gupta, cofounder of OfBusiness. The round also included institutional participation from Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital. Pranav Pai, managing partner at 3one4 Capital, highlighted that the biggest constraint in hiring today is not the supply of talent but the ability to verify fit, stating that Profound is rebuilding that layer for an AI-first world. "AI is fundamentally changing how people build careers. Traditional resumes and profiles can't capture judgement, working style or real context. Profound is rebuilding that layer from the ground up for an AI-first world," he said.
The company plans to use the funding to strengthen its engineering and product teams, expand its AI capabilities and accelerate development of its matching and introductions engine. According to Business Standard, Profound plans to build its founding network and onboard 1 million professionals globally over the next year ahead of a broader beta rollout. The platform is currently available through an early-access programme for its first cohort, with broader beta access planned later this year. The launch comes as AI startups move beyond productivity tools and coding assistants to tackle vertical consumer use cases, with professional networking and hiring increasingly becoming AI-driven. The company ultimately wants to build a consumer platform rather than a traditional recruitment marketplace, betting that an always-on AI representative can become a new layer between professionals, recruiters and employers.
