Former Swiggy, Zomato Executives Launch ‘Profound’ with USD 1.5 Mn Seed Funding

Former Swiggy and Zomato leaders Anuj Rathi and Prashant Parashar have launched Profound, an AI-native platform that provides professionals with their own AI representative (AI Rep). The startup has also raised USD 1.5 million in a seed funding round and opened early access to its first cohort after several months of product development and user research. 

The seed round saw participation from technology founders and entrepreneurs including Sriharsha Majety, CEO of Swiggy; Nandan Reddy, Co-founder of Swiggy; Pankaj Chaddah, ex-Zomato executive; Harshil Mathur, CEO of Razorpay; Kunal Shah, Global Head of WhatsApp; and Bhuvan Gupta, Co-founder of OfBusiness. Institutional investors Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital also joined the round. 

The company said it will use the fresh capital to strengthen its engineering and product teams, expand its AI capabilities and accelerate development of its matching and introductions engine. Over the next year, Profound plans to build its founding network and onboard 1 million professionals globally ahead of a broader beta rollout.

Anuj Rathi, Co-Founder and CEO, Profound said, “Just as actors have agents and athletes have managers, Profound gives each professional their own AI Rep. It learns your work and your judgment and keeps you ready for the next move and the connection that has the potential to change your career trajectory. This is what the future of work looks like when representation is available to everyone.” 

Profound’s AI Rep begins with a 30-minute voice conversation to understand a professional’s experience, expertise, working style, ambitions and context. The AI then identifies relevant opportunities, facilitates introductions and helps professionals build stronger career relationships. 

The platform also allows hiring managers to create AI Reps for roles and teams. Through natural conversations, it aims to capture deeper context than traditional job descriptions to improve talent discovery, matching and collaboration.

“Voice AI has reached a point where a machine can hold a genuinely curious conversation. We built the reasoning layer that turns those conversations into an AI Rep. That richer understanding of a professional enables significantly better matches, shifting professional discovery from keyword-based search to intelligence-driven matchmaking,” said Prashant Parashar, Co-Founder and CTO, Profound.

“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 judgment. Profound uses a voice-first, AI-native approach to build an always-on ‘AI Rep’ that represents professionals with far greater depth,” said Rahul Chowdhri, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners.