Meet 16-year-old Indian girl, founder of Rs 100 cr AI startup

Pranjali Awasthi, inspired by her engineer father, delved into computer science from a young age. Starting her coding journey at seven, she’s now the 16-year-old founder of an AI company valued at Rs 100 crore. Yes, you read that right.

At an age when many of us were primarily focused on our school boards and future career aspirations, Pranjali took the remarkable step of establishing Delve.AI and even secured Rs 3.7 crore in funding. Today, she proudly leads a team of 10 employees.

In a Miami Tech Week event, Pranjali revealed that she founded her company in January 2022. She attributes the company’s success to her father, whose passion for promoting computer science education in schools ignited her own keen interest in technology.

When Pranjali was 11, her family moved to Florida, granting her access to computer science and math programmes. At 13, she interned at Florida International University’s research labs, where her entrepreneurial journey began. During this time, she explored machine learning (ML) while attending virtual high school due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is when OpenAI released ChatGPT-3 beta, inspiring the birth of Delve.AI. Her mission was to use ML for better data extraction and break down data silos. She later joined a Miami-based AI startup accelerator led by Lucy Guo and Dave Fontenot, a pivotal step in her entrepreneurial path.

According to Pranjali, Delve.AI aims to assist researchers in finding specific information in the vast online world. She secured investments, raising Rs 3.7 crore and now values the company at Rs 100 crore. Pranjali oversees coding, operations, and customer service. While she plans to pursue higher education, her responsibilities have temporarily postponed those plans.