Bengaluru based AI startup Profound has raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round as it launched an AI powered platform for professional networking and hiring.
The startup was founded by Anuj Rathi and Prashant Parashar, former product and technology leaders with experience across Swiggy, Zomato, Cleartrip, Flipkart, Ola and Walmart Labs.
The seed round saw participation from angel investors including Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy cofounder Nandan Reddy, former Zomato cofounder Pankaj Chaddah, Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur, WhatsApp Global Head Kunal Shah, and OfBusiness cofounder Bhuvan Gupta, along with venture capital firms Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital.
The company will use the fresh capital to expand its engineering and product teams, enhance its AI capabilities, and develop its matching and introductions engine. It plans to onboard one million professionals globally before opening beta access to more users.
Profound offers every professional an AI powered representative that starts with a voice conversation to understand a user’s experience, expertise, work style and career goals. Based on this, the platform recommends opportunities and facilitates professional introductions.
The startup also enables hiring managers to create AI representatives for roles and teams, allowing companies to capture hiring requirements through voice conversations instead of traditional job descriptions.
“Just as actors have agents and athletes have managers, Profound gives each professional their own AI Rep,” cofounder and CEO Anuj Rathi said in a statement.
The company has opened early access for its first cohort, while a wider beta launch is planned later this year.
