Bengaluru: Former Swiggy executive Anuj Rathi and former Zomato chief technology officer Prashant Parashar have raised $1.5 million in seed funding for Profound, an AI startup building digital representatives for professionals.The round saw participation from Swiggy co-founders Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy, former Zomato co-founder Pankaj Chaddah, Razorpay co-founder Harshil Mathur, Cred founder Kunal Shah and OfBusiness co-founder Bhuvan Gupta. Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital also invested.Profound creates an “AI Rep” through a voice conversation lasting about 30 minutes. The system seeks to understand a person’s career, expertise, goals, preferences and working style. It can then help prepare professional profiles and introductions, and match users with jobs and other connections.“The way I think about Profound is that we want to create a global AI platform that gives every professional their own AI Rep,” Rathi told TOI. “Athletes have agents and actors have managers. Professionals should have an AI representative that understands them deeply.”The startup has conducted over 1,000 AI calls during its pilot phase and helped close a few roles, Rathi said. He did not disclose the number of unique users who participated or the number of jobs filled.Profound opened its waitlist on August 4. Users can try an introductory voice interaction, while broader representation and matching features will be released gradually to selected groups.Rathi said the system has initially been tested across engineering, product, design, marketing, analyst and chief-of-staff roles. The AI Rep will not independently contact people or pursue opportunities without the user’s approval.“The Rep does not go and automatically do it. It speaks with you about what it is going to write and what should be adjusted. You are in control,” he said.Hiring is expected to be among Profound’s first revenue streams. The company may also explore professional subscriptions and, later, business introductions through its network.The funding will be used to expand its product and engineering teams and strengthen its AI and matching capabilities.
