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MaxIQ plugs in AI ace Sastry Malladi as CTO to power up its next big leap
MUMBAI: MaxIQ didn’t just hire a CTO; it summoned a Silicon Valley warlock. With three decades of engineering sorcery under his belt, Sastry Malladi has joined the AI startup as chief technology officer—and he’s not here to play nice with traditional revenue models. Backed by Dell Technologies Capital and Intel Capital, MaxIQ just added a whole lot of firepower to its AI engine.
The appointment of Malladi comes at a time when MaxIQ is gearing up for hypergrowth. He will lead the company’s product and engineering teams as they expand their Revenue AI platform—a brainy beast designed to help B2B SaaS teams turn messy sales pipelines into clean, predictable growth machines.
Malladi is no stranger to the startup trenches. He co-founded FogHorn Systems (later snapped up by Johnson Controls), built large-scale platforms at eBay and Oracle, and holds the kind of AI chops that make recruiters weep with envy. Now, he’s bringing that playbook to MaxIQ.
“I’m thrilled to join the leadership team at MaxIQ during this pivotal growth phase. Today’s revenue teams are operating in silos—disconnected tools for sales and success lead to inaccurate forecasts, missed handoffs, and lost opportunities. With Revenue AI, we have the chance to change the game. I’m excited to build the platform that brings it all together,” said Malladi.
At MaxIQ, he’ll lead the development of its Agentic AI capabilities. That includes forecasting, onboarding, product adoption, and revenue expansion—all in one unified dashboard that’s less spreadsheet, more smart rocket.
His arrival follows MaxIQ’s recent $7.8 million seed round, led by Dell Technologies Capital and supported by Intel Capital. With fresh funding and a battle-tested CTO in place, the company is ready to turbocharge its R&D roadmap and hire globally.
CEO Matt Hickey didn’t hold back on the praise. “Sastry’s track record of technical excellence and entrepreneurial success speaks for itself. He’s the right leader to help us scale the next-generation platform that today’s GTM teams have been waiting for.”
As B2B SaaS companies scramble to align sales, customer success, and RevOps, MaxIQ is rolling out the AI red carpet. From deal qualification to onboarding and renewals, it’s offering a one-stop revenue command centre—and with Malladi now at the helm, the platform is only getting sharper.
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Sleepwell unveils nationwide sleep study on World Sleep Day
79 per cent use screens before bed, 36 per cent of 18–25-year-olds sleep ≤5 hours.
MUMBAI: Sleepwell just dropped the pillow truth bomb because when India’s sleeping less and scrolling more, even the mattress wants to stage an intervention. On World Sleep Day 2026, Sleepwell released its nationwide Sleep Study, painting a stark picture of India’s escalating sleep crisis. The findings show that 79% of Indians use screens right before bed, fuelling restless nights and drowsy days. Alarmingly, 36% of young adults aged 18–25 sleep five hours or less making them the country’s most sleep-deprived group.
The study also busts the myth of “catch-up sleep”, 65% of respondents actually sleep even later on weekends, pointing to increasingly irregular patterns that spill fatigue into the working week. Mattress discomfort emerged as a frequently overlooked culprit behind late-night wake-ups and constant leak-anxiety checks.
To drive the message home, Sleepwell’s CMO Puneet Gulati appeared on Zee Business, stressing that quality sleep isn’t a luxury, it’s foundational health. He highlighted how the right mattress can transform restless nights into restorative ones.
The brand doubled down with clever late-night activations, partnering with a quick-commerce platform to serve contextual ads between 11 pm and 3 am, gently nudging bleary-eyed scrollers to consider mattress discomfort as the reason they’re still awake and pointing them to the nearest Sleepwell store. Digital influencers and creators also shared relatable stories of how poor sleep fuels impulsive late-night behaviour.
In a nation that celebrates hustle but quietly pays for it in lost rest, Sleepwell isn’t just selling mattresses, it’s selling the radical idea that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is close your eyes and actually sleep well.
