In the high-stakes world of startups, one challenge looms larger than funding, talent, or even product-market fit: finding the first customer. For deep-tech ventures building one-of-a-kind technologies, the barrier is even steeper—conventional government tenders require prior experience, established turnover, and competitor benchmarks that simply do not exist for novel innovations.

In a world where talent is abundant but meaningful connections are scarce, two of India’s most experienced product and technology leaders are building a solution. Former Swiggy executive Anuj Rathi and former Zomato CTO Prashant Parashar have launched Profound, an AI-native platform that gives every professional their own AI representative. The company has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from a stellar roster of technology founders and institutional investors, and opened early access to its first cohort.