The startup will help professionals create their own AI representative to manage communication, scheduling, and routine tasks.
Former Swiggy and Zomato executives Anuj Rathi and Prashant Parashar have launched Profound, an AI-native startup that aims to give every professional a personalized AI representative capable of managing communication, scheduling, networking, and career opportunities.
The startup has also raised $1.5 million in seed funding and opened early access to its first group of users after several months of product development and customer research.
Building an AI Representative for Every Professional
Profound is designed around the idea that professionals should have an AI representative that understands not only their resume, but also their experience, expertise, decision-making style, and career goals.
According to the company, its AI Rep learns through voice-first conversations, allowing it to build a richer understanding of an individual’s professional background and judgment.
Rather than simply automating routine tasks, the AI representative is intended to help professionals discover new opportunities, build meaningful business relationships, manage scheduling, and create long-term career value.
For businesses, Profound also offers AI representatives for teams and organizational roles, helping companies improve talent discovery, capture institutional knowledge, and strengthen collaboration.
Backed by Top Startup Founders
The seed funding round attracted support from several well-known entrepreneurs and technology leaders.
Investors include:
- Sriharsha Majety, CEO of Swiggy
- Nandan Reddy, Co-founder of Swiggy
- Pankaj Chaddah, Co-founder of Zomato
- Harshil Mathur, CEO of Razorpay
- Kunal Shah
- Bhuvan Gupta, Co-founder of OfBusiness
The round also received institutional backing from Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital.
Funding to Expand AI Capabilities
Profound said it will use the fresh capital to strengthen its engineering and product teams, expand its AI capabilities, and accelerate development of its proprietary matching and introductions engine.
Over the next year, the startup plans to grow its founding user network and onboard one million professionals globally ahead of a wider public beta launch.
Founders See a New Future for Professional Networking
Anuj Rathi, Co-founder and CEO of Profound, said the platform is designed to democratize professional representation.
“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.”
Co-founder and CTO Prashant Parashar said advances in voice AI have made it possible to build much deeper professional profiles than traditional resumes or online networking platforms.
“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.”
Investors Bet on AI-Powered Professional Discovery
Investors believe AI could fundamentally reshape how professionals are discovered and matched with opportunities.
Rahul Chowdhri, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, said traditional resumes and professional profiles fail to capture qualities such as judgment, experience, and decision-making.
He said Profound’s voice-first approach creates an always-on AI representative capable of understanding professionals at a much deeper level than existing networking platforms.
Pranav Pai, Managing Partner at 3one4 Capital, added that hiring is increasingly constrained not by talent availability but by the difficulty of accurately assessing candidate fit.
He said Profound aims to rebuild professional identity and talent matching for an AI-first world, enabling organizations to evaluate skills, working style, and context more effectively than conventional recruitment tools.
With AI rapidly reshaping workplace productivity, Profound joins a growing wave of startups seeking to move beyond simple AI assistants toward intelligent digital representatives that can actively support careers, hiring, and professional networking.
Source: ISN
