Expertia AI
Entrepreneur First '21Bangalore, IN · Founded 2021 · 7 known investors
Expertia AI uses deep learning and explainable natural language processing to rank job candidates for small and medium-sized employers. The system connects to existing HR software to generate shortlists automatically, and it also provides job seekers with individualized career recommendations.
Also known as Expertia · EXPERTIA AI TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED · Expertia AI Technologies Pvt Ltd
Founders & leadership
Expertia AI was founded in 2021 by Kanishk Shukla and Akshay Gugnani.
Investors · 7
Also in the syndicate · 4
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements- Undisclosed amountSeries AOct 2025Source ↗
- Undisclosed amountpre-Series AMar 2025 · 2 sources
Rockstud Capital (lead), Chiratae Ventures, Endiya Partners, Flipkart
Source ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Valuation · disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed — follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Expertia AI (legal name Expertia AI Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) is a Bengaluru, India-based HR technology company operating a recruitment automation platform. The product broadcasts job vacancies across external job boards and aggregators, ingests and parses the resulting applications, and then scores, ranks and explains candidate-to-job fit using proprietary machine learning and natural language processing. In its early form the system distributed postings to roughly 25 job boards including Google for Jobs, LinkedIn and Glassdoor, identified skills implicit in resumes, mined the web for additional professional data, maintained a centralised talent pool of past and new applicants, and returned a shortlist of the top 10 candidates for a role.
By 2025 the company described itself as an agentic platform automating talent discovery, sourcing, screening, assessment and interviews across more than 35 job platforms, backed by a distribution network reaching over 220 million professionals. The platform bundles applicant tracking, organic sourcing, assessments, candidate engagement, bot-assisted interviews and hiring analytics, and the company states its AI technology is patent-pending and takes a skill-first rather than resume-first approach to matching. On the candidate side, product offerings have included a Career Advisor, a Top 10 Jobs recommendation feature, and upskilling/reskilling suggestions. Inc42 classifies the company in the enterprise tech sector and reports FY25 revenue of INR 2.4 crore, up about 125% from INR 1.1 crore in FY24.
Founding story
Co-founders Kanishk Shukla and Akshay Gugnani met at the Entrepreneur First Bangalore cohort in late 2020 and founded Expertia AI in 2021, launching a beta in June 2021. The premise was that small and medium enterprises lack the resources and know-how to buy and operate expensive recruitment software, database access or premium job ads, so an AI 'virtual recruiter' could source, screen and identify the top candidates automatically. Kanishk Shukla, the CEO, had co-founded Koovs.com in 2009 (listed on AIM, LSE in 2014) and subsequently worked with an executive search firm, where he observed inefficiencies in existing HR tech. Akshay Gugnani, CTO, is an AI researcher with peer-reviewed publications on skill identification, extraction and career path generation at MIT and IBM Research, holding five patents and seven peer-reviewed papers. Note: Inc42 lists the founding year as 2020, while YourStory and Entrackr state 2021.
Business model
B2B SaaS recruitment software sold to employers, with a companion free-to-use layer for job seekers. In 2022 the company operated a freemium model: unlimited sourcing and screening free for startups and bootstrapped companies (including unlimited job posts and user accounts), with a monthly fee charged to larger organisations for premium opt-in features such as unlimited job postings and access to screened applications sourced organically from job portals; premium assessments were planned as an on-demand paid service.
Subscription/monthly fees from employers for premium features layered on a free tier; premium assessments planned as on-demand paid add-ons. Inc42 reports revenue of INR 2.4 crore in FY25 versus INR 1.1 crore in FY24, and the company said it aimed to close FY25 with 3x revenue growth over FY24.
Traction
As of March 2025 the company stated it had processed more than 25 million applications, facilitated hiring for over 230,000 jobs and built a user base of more than 18,000 companies since 2021, with clients including Reliance Retail and Jio. In May 2022 it reported over 500 companies, 1,000 recruiters and 100,000 professionals actively using the platform, roughly 800 applications received per day, and claimed 75% accuracy in predicting the winning candidate on skills alone. Inc42 lists FY25 revenue of INR 2.4 crore (up 125% year over year), 46 employees and about 175,000 monthly web visits.
Latest developments
In March 2025 Expertia AI announced a Rs 20 crore pre-Series A round led by Rockstud Capital with participation from Flipkart, Endiya Partners and Chiratae Ventures, to be used for product development and expanding the technology team. The company positioned itself as an agentic recruitment platform spanning more than 35 job platforms and targeting enterprises with 500+ employees, and said it aimed to end FY25 with 3x revenue growth over FY24. Inc42 reports FY25 revenue of INR 2.4 crore and a last known valuation of $11.22 million.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Positioned as an AI-first recruitment automation platform. In 2022 the founders said there were no direct competitors in India and named Eightfold.ai, Phenom.com and SeekOut as global players in the space that primarily target Fortune 500 multinationals. Entrackr cites market research projecting the global HR technology market to grow from $40.5 billion in 2024 to $81.8 billion by 2032; a 2022 YourStory report cited Fortune Business Insights projecting a $35.68 billion global HR tech market by 2028 at a 5.8% CAGR.
Company-stated differentiators include instant shortlisting of the top 10 profiles from large applicant volumes, explainable scoring that states why a candidate fits a job description, skill-first matching that looks beyond resumes, free premium job distribution enabled by partnerships with job boards and aggregators, and affordability aimed at employers that cannot support enterprise recruiting software.
Technology
Proprietary deep learning algorithms and natural language processing used to parse resumes, infer hidden or implicit skills, enrich profiles with professional data mined from the web, and rank and explain candidate-job fit. The company describes the AI as patent-pending, self-learning (originally tuned for tech profiles and extended to non-tech roles), and by 2025 as 'agentic', covering sourcing, screening, assessment and bot-assisted interviews. A centralised talent pool retains historical and new applications for re-matching.
Go-to-market
Distribution through integrations and partnerships with job boards and aggregators (25 boards in 2022, more than 35 job platforms by 2025), a freemium entry point for smaller employers, and stated aims of near-zero customer acquisition cost via strategic partnerships and viral campaigns; later movement upmarket toward enterprise accounts.
Originally small and medium enterprises worldwide that lack in-house recruiting infrastructure, plus a free tier for bootstrapped startups; job seekers and professionals form the other side of the platform. By 2025 the company said it targets enterprises with 500 or more employees, citing clients including Reliance Retail and Jio. Earlier disclosed clients include LimeChat, TUORen, Fello, Koovs.com and Zluri. The platform is described as industry-agnostic, though most jobs and applications initially came from the IT industry.
Geography
Headquartered in Bengaluru (HSR Layout, Sector 1, Bangalore 560101), India, with early users concentrated in Indian cities including Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Indore and Jaipur. The company stated in 2022 that it was built for SMEs globally and planned international expansion into English-speaking markets.
History
Founded in 2021 following the founders' meeting at the EF Bangalore cohort in late 2020; beta launched June 2021. Inc42 records a pre-seed round from Entrepreneur First in March 2021 and a $1.18-1.2 million seed round in April 2022 involving Endiya Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Entrepreneur First and Archana Priyadarshini; Entrackr reports that Rs 9 crore was raised in 2021 from existing investors. The company received non-equity assistance from Google for Startups (July 2023) and JioGenNext (February 2024). In March 2025 it raised a Rs 20 crore (reported as $2.30 million) pre-Series A led by Rockstud Capital with participation from Flipkart and existing investors, bringing reported total funding to about $3.48 million across five rounds at a stated valuation of $11.22 million.
Risks & controversies
Sources contain conflicting basic data: Inc42 lists the founding year as 2020 while YourStory and Entrackr state 2021, and Inc42 gives inconsistent employee counts (46 in one place, 50 in an FAQ). Several performance figures, including the 75% and 80% improvement claims, accuracy targets and user counts, are company claims reported without independent verification, and Inc42 attaches a disclaimer that its data is provided as is. Reported revenue remains small in absolute terms (INR 2.4 crore in FY25) relative to the stated enterprise ambitions, and the 2022 target of break-even in FY23 is not confirmed by any later source.
Compiled by commissioned research from 7 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.
Timeline · 7
launches, deals, and filingsExpertia AI raised Rs 20 crore in a pre-Series A round led by Rockstud Capital, with participation from Flipkart and existing investors Endiya Partners and Chiratae Ventures. Inc42 records the round as $2.30 million announced 26-27 March 2025. Proceeds are earmarked for product development and expanding the technology team.
$2.3M source ↗
Seed round of $1.2 million from Chiratae Ventures, Endiya Partners, Entrepreneur First and Archana Priyadarshini, to be deployed on hiring AI researchers and engineers, product pipeline development and market awareness.
$1.2M source ↗
Founders met at the Entrepreneur First Bangalore cohort in late 2020 and launched Expertia AI's beta version in June 2021.
Inc42 lists an undisclosed pre-seed round from Entrepreneur First.
Prior to the 2025 pre-Series A, the company had raised Rs 9 crore in a 2021 funding round from its existing investors.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 7
primary sources listed
- About Expertia AIexpertia.ai · web
7 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Expertia AI do?
- Bengaluru-based HR tech company using deep learning and NLP to source, screen and rank job candidates for employers.
- Who founded Expertia AI?
- Expertia AI was founded by Kanishk Shukla, Akshay Gugnani in 2021.
- Who are Expertia AI's investors?
- Expertia AI's investors include Chiratae Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Endiya Partners.
- Where is Expertia AI headquartered?
- Expertia AI is headquartered in Bangalore, IN.