Anuj Rathi and Prashant Parashar, former product and technology leaders with experience across Swiggy, Zomato, Cleartrip, Flipkart, Ola and Walmart Labs, today announced the launch of Profound, a global AI-native platform where every professional gets their own AI Rep. The company has also raised a $1.5 million seed round and opened early access to its first cohort following several months of product development and user research. Together, Rathi and Parashar bring more than two decades of experience building global products, growth systems and technology platforms that have served millions of users. The seed round includes participation from technology founders and entrepreneurs, including Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy; Nandan Reddy, Co-Founder, Swiggy; Pankaj Chaddah, ex-Zomato; Harshil Mathur, CEO, Razorpay; Kunal Shah, Global Head, WhatsApp; and Bhuvan Gupta, Co-Founder, OfBusiness, among others. The round also includes institutional participation from Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital. The company will use the funding 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 1 million professionals globally ahead of a broader beta rollout. At Profound, every professional receives an AI Rep that begins with a 30-minute voice conversation. It develops a continuously evolving understanding of a person's experience, expertise, judgment, working style, ambitions and context. The AI Rep works in the background on behalf of professionals, identifies relevant opportunities, facilitates meaningful introductions and helps build stronger professional relationships and careers. Profound also enables hiring managers to create AI Reps for roles and teams. Through natural conversations, founders and hiring leaders can capture far deeper context than a conventional job description, enabling more accurate talent discovery, stronger matches, meaningful introductions and more effective collaboration. Profound is now available through an early-access programme for its first cohort, with broader beta access planned later this year. Looking ahead, the company envisions a professional ecosystem where AI Reps interact with one another on behalf of individuals and organisations, enabling richer discovery, trusted introductions, and new ways to build careers, teams, and businesses. At its core, Profound is building toward a future where AI is not just representing people, but co-creating intelligent agency throughout their professional journey.
