Fundraising Fox
Cognitensor
Techstars '24Delhi, IN · Founded 2018 · 34 employees on LinkedIn · 2 known investors
Find your way into Cognitensor
Sign up to see every warm intro you have to Cognitensor
- Paths you didn't know you had: your email and LinkedIn already hold routes to the Cognitensor team. We find them for you
- 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections: the friend-of-a-friend routes that take hours to manually find through your inbox or LinkedIn
- Answers now, not in days: momentum is everything in a raise. Skip asking around whether someone knows someone
Days of research, done the moment you sign in, with every route ranked by how warm it is.
CogniTensor is an enterprise AI company that designs, engineers, and deploys industry-grade AI platforms, offering services spanning AI strategy, data architecture, platform development, and cloud/DevOps infrastructure. It focuses on regulated, data-intensive sectors such as financial services, healthcare, insurance, and ESG/sustainability reporting.
Also known as CogniTensor Technology · CogniTensor Technology Private Limited · MetaTensor
Investors · 2
How we know: IIMA Ventures's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Sep 2026CogniTensor, incorporated as CogniTensor Technology Private Limited on 11 April 2018, is an India-based artificial intelligence company that helps enterprises with predictive decision-making and quantifiable business analysis. Its core product, DeepOptics, is described as a low-code AI platform and platform-as-a-service that provides an end-to-end horizontal environment for faster development and deployment of automated workflows, analytics and machine learning applications, enabling customisable cross-industry solutions. The company also offers CogniViz, an Android and iOS mobile application that presents data dashboards and key business metrics.
The company frames its offering around what it calls three "D" solutions: digitisation (turning enterprise data into usable information), decentralisation (AI-driven decisions on procurement, payment and manufacturing) and decarbonisation (reducing CO2 to make businesses more sustainable), all delivered through DeepOptics. It serves industries including education, healthcare, sustainability, and manufacturing and distribution, and has worked with retailers, raw-material-intensive manufacturers and energy companies on procurement timing and pricing. Early applications included predicting commodity and energy prices, starting with aluminium, and work with the state-owned Power Trading Corporation on power procurement strategies. As of 2020 the company was also in the process of collaborating with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on predicting certain diseases before they occur.
Founding story
Co-founder Ashish Airon studied computer science at Delhi University, where he failed a probability paper in his fourth semester before graduating with first-class honours, then completed a master's in computer science at Oxford University. After a stint as a research associate in Frankfurt, he moved to the UK and in January 2016 founded MetaTensor, built around a proprietary platform called DeepOptics intended to connect researchers globally to solve data science problems with AI; it was started with a loan of Rs 5 lakh from his father and savings from Germany. Citing weaker UK business sentiment after Brexit and opportunity in India, Airon returned to India in January 2018 and co-founded CogniTensor with industry veterans Arun Aggarwal and Pankaj Mathur, carrying over the DeepOptics product. Aggarwal, a BITS Pilani alumnus with a 30-plus-year career at DEC, IBM, Lucent and Comptel, serves as CEO; Mathur, an FMS Delhi graduate with three decades at IBM, HP and Orange, is President; Airon heads product and strategy.
Business model
Business-to-business enterprise software and solutions, delivered through the DeepOptics platform-as-a-service and accompanying applications, sold to corporate clients across sectors. Management states pricing is positioned at the higher end, arguing that lower prices would undermine R&D and product quality.
Revenue is generated from enterprise customers for the DeepOptics platform and related AI solutions. Reported financials (per Tofler, cited by The Economic Times) show total revenue of Rs 109.16 lakh in FY2019-20, Rs 45.21 lakh in FY2020-21 and Rs 68.80 lakh in FY2021-22, with net losses of Rs 16.19 lakh and Rs 16.51 lakh in FY2019-20 and FY2020-21 and a net profit of Rs 0.18 lakh in FY2021-22.
Traction
Reported profitability within six months of founding and Rs 2 crore revenue in its first year. As of 2023 the company had served more than 20 clients across India, Europe and the United States, employed over 50 people in India, reported three-times growth over FY2021-22, and targeted crossing $1 million in revenue by the end of 2023. Team size grew from around 25 people in 2020 to over 50 in 2023.
Latest developments
In July 2023 CogniTensor was one of 10 startups selected from more than 80 applicants for the Accenture Sustainability Value Accelerator programme, run in collaboration with IIM Ahmedabad's CIIE.CO, which provides seed funding and business progression support; the company was listed there for its integrated MLOps environment. The same month, it described having started Middle East operations and set a target of crossing $1 million in revenue by the end of 2023.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Positioned as an enterprise AI platform provider in India; in 2020 the founder described the company as operating in a niche with no encountered direct competition, and in 2023 management characterised its model as more developed than younger entrants in the ecosystem.
A single horizontal, low-code platform (DeepOptics) covering workflow automation, analytics and AI/ML deployment across industries, combined with domain focus on procurement and price prediction for commodities and energy, and a founding team pairing deep learning expertise with decades of enterprise technology sales and operations experience.
Technology
DeepOptics is a low-code AI platform and integrated MLOps environment supporting development and deployment of automated workflows, analytics and AI/ML applications. It supports deep learning algorithms including convolutional neural networks for image recognition, recurrent neural networks for sequence data analysis and generative adversarial networks for data generation, as well as classical machine learning methods such as decision trees, support vector machines and random forests. The company's listed technology areas include machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, and it also ships CogniViz, a mobile dashboard application for Android and iOS.
Go-to-market
Direct B2B sales to enterprise clients, supported by accelerator and corporate innovation programmes including the Harvard Club of India accelerator (2018) and the Accenture Sustainability Value Accelerator with IIM Ahmedabad's CIIE.CO (2023). In 2020 the company had engaged PwC to manage a planned fundraise.
Enterprises in education, healthcare, sustainability, and manufacturing and distribution, including retailers, manufacturers consuming large volumes of raw materials, energy companies and power traders such as the state-owned Power Trading Corporation.
Geography
Headquartered in the Delhi NCR area, with the startup described as Noida-based and its R&D centre in Noida; a government portal lists its location as Uttar Pradesh, India. Clients are located in India, Europe and the United States, and Middle East operations had recently begun as of 2023. The predecessor entity MetaTensor was set up in London.
History
The company began operating from the New Delhi office of the Harvard Club of India, which selected it for its accelerator programme in 2018, and was incorporated on 11 April 2018. It reported becoming profitable within six months because the DeepOptics product already existed, and clocked Rs 2 crore in revenue in its first year. In 2020 Airon was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in Enterprise Technology. Revenue declined during the pandemic years before recovering; in 2023 the company was selected for the Accenture Sustainability Value Accelerator programme run with IIM Ahmedabad's CIIE.CO.
Risks & controversies
Revenue fell from Rs 109.16 lakh in FY2019-20 to Rs 45.21 lakh in FY2020-21 and Rs 68.80 lakh in FY2021-22, with net losses in the first two of those years, which management attributed to pandemic-related challenges. The company declined to disclose current revenue and profit figures. Management also acknowledges pricing above market levels, and public records give inconsistent details such as differing stated locations and an incomplete founder listing on one government portal.
Compiled by commissioned research from 5 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Related companies · 3
Companies working in the same space as Cognitensor.
Timeline · 5
launches, deals, and filingsThe company reported that it had just started its Middle East operations, alongside serving clients in India, Europe and the US.
CogniTensor was one of 10 startups chosen from more than 80 applicants for the Accenture Sustainability Value Accelerator programme, launched with IIM Ahmedabad's CIIE.CO; selected startups receive seed funding and business progression support. CogniTensor was listed for its integrated MLOps environment enabling faster development.
Co-founder Ashish Airon was featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in Enterprise Technology in 2020.
The company was incorporated as CogniTensor Technology Private Ltd on 11 April 2018, after co-founder Ashish Airon returned to India in January 2018 and teamed with Arun Aggarwal and Pankaj Mathur.
The company started its first office at the New Delhi office of the Harvard Club of India, which selected it for its accelerator programme in 2018.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 5
primary sources listed
- Accenture Sustainability Value Accelerator programme chooses 10 tech startups for cohort - IIMA VENTURESiimaventures.com · web
5 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Cognitensor do?
- Indian enterprise AI company whose low-code DeepOptics platform powers predictive analytics and ML workflows for industry.
- Who are Cognitensor's investors?
- Cognitensor's investors include IIMA Ventures, Techstars.
- Where is Cognitensor headquartered?
- Cognitensor is headquartered in Delhi, IN.