Profound Raises $1.5 Mn to Build AI Reps for Every Professional

Profound, a startup building AI-powered representatives for professionals, has launched with $1.5 million in seed funding to help users discover career opportunities, build meaningful connections and match with employers through AI.

It wants to replace static resumes and keyword-based professional profiles with intelligent AI "Reps" that continuously learn from users and act on their behalf.

The startup was founded by Anuj Rathi and Prashant Parashar, former product and technology leaders with experience at Swiggy, Zomato, Flipkart, Ola, Cleartrip and Walmart Labs.

Profound wants to replace traditional resumes and static professional profiles with AI agents that develop a deeper understanding of an individual's expertise, ambitions and working style through voice conversations.

The seed round saw participation from prominent technology founders, including Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy Co-founder Nandan Reddy, Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur, WhatsApp Global Head Kunal Shah, OfBusiness Co-founder Bhuvan Gupta, along with venture capital firms Stellaris Venture Partners and 3one4 Capital.

"There’s a growing gap between how good someone is at their job and how easy they are to find. Resumes and LinkedIn profiles capture titles, not judgment. Profound uses a voice-first, AI-native approach to build an always-on ‘AI Rep’ that represents professionals with far greater depth,” Rahul Chowdhri, Stellaris Venture Partner, said.

The company said it will use the capital to expand its engineering and product teams, strengthen its AI capabilities and build its matching and introductions engine. Over the next year, Profound plans to onboard one million professionals globally before a broader beta launch.

“Just as actors have agents and athletes have managers, Profound gives each professional their own AI Rep. It learns your work and your judgment, and keeps you ready for the next move and the connection that has the potential to change your career trajectory. This is what the future of work looks like when representation is available to everyone,”  Rathi, Profound Co-Founder and CEO, said.

The platform begins with a 30-minute voice conversation that enables the AI Rep to understand a professional's experience, expertise and goals. It then works in the background to identify relevant opportunities, facilitate introductions and recommend career moves.

"Voice AI has reached a point where a machine can hold a genuinely curious conversation. We built the reasoning layer that turns those conversations into an AI Rep. That richer understanding of a professional enables significantly better matches, shifting professional discovery from keyword-based search to intelligence-driven matchmaking," Parashar, Profound Co-founder and CTO, added.

Beyond individuals, Profound also enables organisations to create AI Reps for job roles and teams, helping hiring managers capture richer context than traditional job descriptions and improve talent matching.

The startup is currently accepting users through an early-access programme, with a wider beta rollout planned later this year.

“The biggest constraint in hiring today is not the supply of talent but the ability to verify fit. Resumes and static profiles cannot capture judgment, working style or real context. Profound is rebuilding that layer for an AI-first world, and we are backing the team as they redefine how professionals are understood and matched,” Pranav Pai, 3one4 Capital Managing Partner, said.