Former Swiggy & Zomato executives launch AI startup Profound, raise $1.5 million

Bengaluru: Ready to make career moves a little more profound, former Swiggy and Zomato leaders Anuj Rathi and Prashant Parashar have launched AI-native networking platform Profound, alongside a $1.5 million seed funding round to build what they describe as an AI representative for every professional.

The Bengaluru-based startup has opened early access to its first cohort after several months of product development and user research. It plans to use the fresh capital to expand its engineering and product teams, strengthen its AI capabilities and accelerate development of its matching and introductions engine.

Founded by Rathi and Parashar, who have previously held leadership roles across Swiggy, Zomato, Cleartrip, Flipkart, Ola and Walmart Labs, Profound aims to help professionals discover opportunities and build career connections through AI-powered representation rather than traditional resumes or networking profiles.

The seed round attracted backing from several technology founders and entrepreneurs, including Swiggy chief executive officer Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy co-founder Nandan Reddy, former Zomato executive Pankaj Chaddah, Razorpay chief executive officer Harshil Mathur, WhatsApp global head Kunal Shah and OfBusiness co-founder Bhuvan Gupta. Institutional investors Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital also participated.

The platform assigns every user an AI Rep that begins by conducting a 30-minute voice conversation to understand their professional experience, expertise, working style, ambitions and career context. It then works continuously in the background to identify relevant opportunities, facilitate introductions and support professional growth.

Profound is also targeting employers by allowing hiring managers to create AI representatives for roles and teams. Instead of relying solely on conventional job descriptions, the platform uses conversational AI to capture deeper hiring requirements, with the goal of improving talent discovery and matching.

Over the next year, the company plans to onboard one million professionals globally before expanding into a broader beta programme later this year. Its longer-term vision is to create an ecosystem where AI representatives interact on behalf of professionals and organisations, enabling more intelligent hiring, networking and career development.