Monish Darda steps back from Icertis operations to launch AI firm

Icertis cofounder Monish Darda is stepping down from daily operations at the contract management firm to start an artificial intelligence company. Darda said he will continue to be part of Icertis’ board.

Darda is partnering with Kabir Narang, a former board member of Icertis and founding general partner at B Capital, for the new company, HumanTronik. It aims to build personalised large language models that could mimic the human brain and is hiring neuroscientists for the research phase.

Confirming the development, Darda in an emailed statement said HumanTronik is looking to develop hyper-personalised language models to help enterprises convert human intent to business outcomes, enabling humans and AI to work seamlessly together. He will continue to serve as the chief mentor at Icertis while also remaining on its board, Darda said.


With AI becoming more mainstream, multiple Indian startup executives are taking the entrepreneurial plunge, as the technology brings in a fundamental shift in the way businesses are run. Some of the executives who have started up recently include Myntra’s Mukesh Bansal, former Flipkart executive Peeyush Ranjan and Netmagic’s Sharad Sanghi.

Icertis was founded in 2009 by Darda, Samir Bodas and Unmesh Bhathija. It appointed a new chief executive, Anand Subbaraman, in August 2025. Bodas died in January after a battle with cancer.

According to Tracxn, the company has raised $497 million and was valued at $5 billion as of 2022. As per the company, it is making $350 million in annual recurring revenue. Its investors include Softbank, B Capital, Premji Invest and Eight Roads Ventures.