Two BITS Pilani alumni raise $52 million for AI startup after visiting 140 businesses in US
Two BITS Pilani alumni who went door to door across Northern California to understand the challenges faced small businesses have raised $52 million for their artificial intelligence startup, Broccoli AI.BITS Pilani alumni AJ Jain and Aditya Ketkar raised $52 million for their AI startup, Broccoli AI, in the US. (Instagram/call_broccoli_ai)(Also read: BITS Pilani alum’s wake-up call for techies in Bengaluru: ‘Fix your health and family’)According to a report Fortune, AJ Jain, 27, and Aditya Ketkar secured $22 million in Series A funding and another $30 million in Series B funding, just nine months apart. Both rounds were led Khosla Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator and Operator Partners.The startup is reportedly valued at $300 million, although the company declined to comment on its valuation.From BITS Pilani to Silicon ValleyJain and Ketkar met at BITS Pilani in 2016 and began building businesses together in 2017. Their earlier ventures included a campus delivery app, an interview preparation boot camp and an electric vehicle software startup.After struggling to scale their previous business, the duo arrived in San Francisco in January 2024.Instead of immediately developing another product, they visited around 140 contractors’ offices across Northern California to understand their everyday problems.“People were not treating us like salesmen,” Jain told Fortune. “Curious kids was, like, our persona,”(Also read:
