Bengaluru: Former Swiggy and Zomato executives Anuj Rathi and Prashant Parashar have launched Profound, an AI-native platform designed to provide every professional with their own AI representative, while raising $1.5 million in seed funding to accelerate product development and global expansion.
Founded by Rathi and Parashar, who bring over two decades of combined experience across companies including Swiggy, Zomato, Cleartrip, Flipkart, Ola and Walmart Labs, Profound aims to transform professional networking and career growth through AI-powered representation. Alongside the launch, the startup has opened early access for its first cohort following months of product development and user research.
The seed funding round attracted participation from several prominent technology entrepreneurs, including Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy Co-Founder Nandan Reddy, former Zomato executive Pankaj Chaddah, Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur, WhatsApp Global Head Kunal Shah and OfBusiness Co-Founder Bhuvan Gupta. Institutional investors Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital also participated in 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 one million professionals globally ahead of a wider beta rollout.
Commenting on the launch, 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 that builds an evolving understanding of a professional’s experience, expertise, judgment, ambitions and working style. The AI assistant then works in the background to identify relevant opportunities, facilitate introductions and strengthen professional relationships.
Prashant Parashar, Co-Founder and CTO, Profound, said, “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.”
Beyond professionals, the platform also enables hiring managers to create AI representatives for roles and teams. Through conversational inputs, employers can provide deeper context than conventional job descriptions, helping improve talent discovery, candidate matching and collaboration.
Backing the company, Rahul Chowdhri, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, said, “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. We are excited to back the team as they build the professional OS for the AI era.”
Pranav Pai, Managing Partner at 3one4 Capital, added, “The biggest constraint in hiring today is not the supply of talent but the ability to verify fit. Resumes and static profiles cannot capture judgment, working style or real context. Profound is rebuilding that layer for an AI-first world, and we are backing the team as they redefine how professionals are understood and matched.”
Profound is currently available through an early-access programme, with a broader beta rollout planned later this year. Looking ahead, the startup envisions an ecosystem where AI representatives interact on behalf of individuals and organisations, enabling richer discovery, trusted introductions and new ways to build careers, teams and businesses
