Former Swiggy and Zomato executives Anuj Rathi and Prashant Parashar have launched Profound, an AI-native startup that aims to transform professional networking and hiring through AI-powered personal representatives. Alongside its launch, the Bengaluru-based startup has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from a mix of venture capital firms and prominent angel investors.
The seed round was led by Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital, with participation from a number of well-known startup founders and operators, including Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy co-founder Nandan Reddy, former Zomato co-founder Pankaj Chaddah, Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur, CRED founder Kunal Shah, and OfBusiness co-founder Bhuvan Gupta, among others.
Profound is positioning itself as an AI-first professional networking platform that goes beyond traditional resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Instead of relying on static credentials, the platform creates an AI representative for every user through a voice-based onboarding process. The AI is designed to understand a professional’s experiences, skills, career aspirations and working style, allowing it to represent users in networking, hiring and career discovery conversations.
According to the founders, professionals can create their AI representative through a 30-minute voice conversation, after which the platform generates a digital profile capable of answering questions, introducing the user to potential employers or collaborators, and identifying relevant career opportunities. The company believes this approach can provide a richer representation of an individual than a conventional resume.
For organisations, Profound is developing AI-powered hiring tools that can help recruiters discover candidates based on skills, experience and intent rather than keyword matching. The startup says its platform is designed to make professional discovery more contextual while reducing the friction involved in networking and recruitment.
Rathi and Parashar bring more than two decades of combined experience across India’s technology ecosystem. Before co-founding Profound, Anuj Rathi served as Senior Vice President of Product at Swiggy, while Prashant Parashar was Chief Technology Officer at Zomato. Between them, they have also held leadership roles at companies including Cleartrip, Flipkart, Ola and Walmart Labs.
FAQs
- What is Profound?
Profound is an AI-native professional networking and hiring platform that creates AI-powered representatives for professionals to help them network, discover opportunities and interact with recruiters. - Who founded Profound?
The startup was founded by Anuj Rathi, former Senior Vice President of Product at Swiggy, and Prashant Parashar, former Chief Technology Officer at Zomato. - How much funding has Profound raised?
Profound has raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital, with participation from several prominent angel investors. - How does Profound’s AI representative work?
Users complete a voice-based onboarding conversation, allowing the platform to build an AI representative that understands their skills, experience and career goals and can engage in professional conversations on their behalf. - What will the funding be used for?
The company plans to use the capital to strengthen product development, grow its engineering team and expand access to the platform ahead of its wider public launch.
