Meet the MAD couple of AI start-ups: Anand Chandrasekaran & Ashwini Asokan

A popular joke doing the rounds these days is that if your startup has a domain name that ends with “.com” or “.co.in”, potential investors might be wary. However, if your domain name is “.ai”, expect them to line up with stacks of cash. With AI startups all the buzz right now, ET Panache spoke to three of the most talked about companies about their passion for the subject:

Niki.ai
The startup was founded in 2015 by four IIT Kharagpur alumni — Sachin Jaiswal, Keshav Prawasi, Nitin Babel and Shishir Modi. The group named their company so because they felt it was relatable. “We wanted to create something that people could connect to — and Niki was a name that was simple, had a better recall and users, globally, could relate to it,” says Jaiswal. Niki not only caught the eye of investor Ronnie Screwvala, but also that of Ratan Tata, who invested an undisclosed amount in the company earlier this year.

Jaiswal believes that the entire point of AI development is generating of sophisticated tools that enhance human capabilities. “If a bot (automated computer programmes that mimic humans) was an actual human, then no doubt, it would have been a salesperson. It would be the one who helps you discover or purchase a product when you visit a shopping mall,” says Jaiswal. “In the future, bots will have more similarities to human behaviour.”


Sachin Jaiswal, Nitin Babel, Shishir Modi and Keshav Prawasi, BCCL

MAD Street Den Systems
Chennai-based Mad Street Den, founded in 2013, received a funding of $1.5 million last year and is one of the startups working in partnership with the Tata Group to build its e-commerce platform. Ashwini Asokan, co-founder of the company with husband Anand Chandrasekaran, says the couple likes to call themselves “the crazy twosome”. The MAD in their firm’s name stands for MindAbled Devices.

Asokan says that human beings love to see reflections of themselves in the world. “We’re a self-obsessed species,” she says. Referring to the proliferation of bots, she says, “If bots were to take a human form someday, I would hope they come in the form of trainers that help us become better at skills we don’t have. I’d love to see diverbots, bungee jumping bots, astrophysicists, astronauts and scientist-bots pushing to unlock all that we don’t know about the universe.”


Anand Chandrasekaran and Ashwini Asokan, BCCL

Arya.ai
In December last year, French innovation agency Paris&Co selected Mumbai-based Arya. ai, the only startup from Asia among 21 other global companies, for an International Innovation Award. Co-founders Vinay Kumar and Deekshith Marla, researchers from IIT Bombay, were on cloud nine. Marla says, “We have always wanted to play big.” Marla, a fan of Aryabhatta, named the company after him. His idea of a bot is simple: someone who is a super-intellectual. “It has to be one person who will solve all your problems,” says Marla.


Deekshith Marla and Vinay Kumar, BCCL