Teenage Indian entrepreneur’s AI firm valued at $12 million

A TEENAGE Indian entrepreneur created ripples at a Miami Tech Week event where she disclosed that a firm she founded more than a year ago secured funding of $450,000.

Pranjali Awasthi, 16, established Delv.AI in January 2022 to help academics quickly find specific information across internet resources.

The startup, backed by Backend Capital, AngelList Quant Fund and Village Global, is now valued at about $12 million.

Inspired by her engineer father's advocacy for computer science education in schools, Awasthi started coding at the age of seven. When she was 11, her family migrated to Florida where she got access to computer science classes and competitive mathematics programs.

During her internship at Florida International University, she got exposure to machine learning while also attending high school virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

As OpenAI released ChatGPT-3 beta, Awasthi thought of streamlining research data extraction and summarisation using artificial intelligence. This was how Delv.AI was conceived and born.

Her entry into an AI startup accelerator in Miami proved to be a critical turning point in her entrepreneurial venture as it helped her secure investments from On Deck and Village Global.

Awasthi’s primary goal is to assist researchers in accessing specific information on the internet.

While her Indian parents think education is essential, Awasthi has decided to postpone college education for now and prioritise her passion for her company.

She plans to return to school in the future to acquire business skills that will help her in her entrepreneurial career.

At Delv.AI, she oversees various aspects from coding to operations and customer service.