Fundraising Fox

Peoplebox.ai

YC S22

Bengaluru, IN · Founded 2018 · 35 employees · Hiring · 2 known investors

Peoplebox is an OKR, talent management, and people analytics platform that uses generative AI to help companies align strategy and retain employees. It integrates with work tools and provides strategy execution and people operations capabilities.

Also known as Peoplebox · Peoplebox Inc · Peoplebox.ai

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareHR TechSaaSArtificial IntelligenceB2BRecruitingIndiaSouth Asia

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S22)

Peoplebox.ai was founded in 2018 by Abhinav Chugh, Alagu M, and Alagu Muthuraman.

ACAbhinav Chugh
Abhinav Chughin𝕏CEO & Co-founderHe previously co-founded VideoCrisp, a cloud-based video creation platform, and Waybiz, a B2B marketplace. He holds a B.Tech from IIT Delhi and an MBA from UCD Smurfit Business School.
AMAlagu M
Alagu Min𝕏FounderAlagu holds an engineering degree from NIT Trichy and has co-founded multiple companies including Askmile (an online relationship counseling platform) and Markupwand (a design-to-code tool). He previously led product at Practo, where he managed app growth and international expansion across multiple markets.
AMAlagu Muthuraman
Alagu Muthuramanin𝕏Founder

Investors · 2

Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K
Nexus Venture PartnersreportedPort Louis, Port Louis · $500K – $10M

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Peoplebox.ai offers an AI-based talent platform that spans hiring, performance management, employee growth and retention within a single product. Its conversational AI agent, branded Nova, is positioned to conduct human-like interactions across the talent lifecycle: sourcing and outreach to candidates on LinkedIn and job boards, bulk resume screening with per-candidate scoring and explanations, adaptive phone screens, asynchronous video interviews with AI evaluation of responses, tone and communication, chat-based pre-screening across text, chat, call and video channels, onboarding conversations, periodic check-in calls, and career growth discussions.

Alongside the AI agent, the company sells an integrated talent management suite intended to replace spreadsheets and reduce administrative work. Modules include performance reviews configurable by competencies, goals, values, rating scales and review types (self, peer, 360), 1:1 management with agendas and action tracking, continuous feedback captured in Slack or Microsoft Teams and fed into reviews, engagement and pulse surveys with team-level trend tracking and at-risk employee identification, goals and OKRs that cascade from company to team to individual with real-time progress tracking, career frameworks, individual development plans, competency tracking tied to reviews and promotions, and compensation planning.

Business model

Peoplebox.ai sells a business-to-business software platform to employers, with go-to-market motions centred on demo requests, self-guided product tours and an interactive AI interview trial on its website [0].

Traction

The company states its platform is used by more than 600 companies [0].

▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market

Market position

Positioned as an all-in-one AI talent platform covering the hire-to-exit lifecycle, competing with point solutions for recruiting automation, performance management and OKR tracking [0].

Technology

The platform centres on Nova, a conversational AI agent that conducts phone, chat and video interviews and employee conversations with adaptive follow-up questions, scores resumes against role requirements with stated pass/fail reasoning, and evaluates video responses including tone and communication. It is paired with configurable workflows and integrations with collaboration tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams [0].

Go-to-market

Inbound, product-led marketing via the company website, offering demo requests, a self-serve product tour, and a live trial in which the Nova AI agent calls a prospect and conducts a sample interview for a selected role [0].

Employers and HR, talent acquisition and people operations teams that run recruiting, performance reviews, engagement and compensation processes; the site references use across roles such as barista/QSR, customer service, sales representative, software engineer and logistics driver [0].

Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Key figures

latest reported
CustomersJan 2026600 companies
HeadcountAug 202674

Company-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.

Competitors · 10

by search overlap
Performyard4276 shared keywordsPerformYard is a performance management platform that combines performance reviews, goal tracking, continuous feedback, engagement surveys, and 1:1 meetings in one AI-assisted system. It is aimed at HR teams and organizations of varying sizes seeking to configure and run their performance review and employee development processes.
Deel4268 shared keywordsDeel is a global HR platform that enables businesses to hire, onboard, and manage employees and contractors across borders. The platform handles payroll, compliance, and HR administration for companies managing international workforces.
Leapsome3714 shared keywordsLeapsome offers HR software that centralizes employee records — personal details, role history, compensation, documents, and job changes — into a single system for HR teams, replacing spreadsheets and paper files. Its platform connects HRIS and talent management with performance reviews, learning paths, and AI-driven analytics, including team-level "Resilience Signals" insights.
Lattice3591 shared keywordsLattice is a people management platform that helps HR leaders and organizations align goals, improve performance, and engage teams through features like 1:1s and performance tracking.
Culture Amp3447 shared keywordsCulture Amp builds a platform for employee surveys and feedback management that helps organizations improve workplace culture and employee experience. The company serves companies worldwide seeking to build more human-literate, profitable organizations through culture-first practices.
Factorial3260 shared keywordsFactorial is an AI-powered business management platform that automates and centralizes administrative HR and people management tasks for companies. The platform serves over 16,000 businesses across 120+ countries, enabling organizations to focus on employee engagement and workplace culture.
BetterUp3068 shared keywordsBetterUp provides an AI-powered coaching and professional development platform that helps organizations support employee growth and wellbeing. The platform serves enterprises and their employees through behavioral science-backed coaching and talent management tools.
Personio2927 shared keywordsFuture of Work venture capital company based in Stuttgart, founded 2018
Quantum Workplace2828 shared keywordsQuantum Workplace provides an all-in-one HR software platform that connects employee engagement, performance management, development, and recognition data in a single view for HR leaders, managers, and executives. It serves growing organizations seeking to surface talent insights, improve manager effectiveness, and reduce turnover.
Rippling2753 shared keywordsRippling is a workforce management platform that unifies HR, IT, finance, and employee data across a business. It integrates with 600+ applications to help organizations operate more efficiently.

Companies competing with Peoplebox.ai for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.

In the news

Nova: The world’s most human-like AI interviewerycombinator.com · Dec 2025🚀 Peoplebox - OKR & performance platform for hypergrowth companiesycombinator.com · Jul 2022Peoplebox Funding | $4.4M Revenue | Complete Analysis | Extruct AIextruct.ai

▸Research sources · 1

primary sources listed

1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does Peoplebox.ai do?
AI-powered talent platform combining automated interviews with performance, OKR, engagement and compensation management.
Who founded Peoplebox.ai?
Peoplebox.ai was founded by Abhinav Chugh, Alagu M, Alagu Muthuraman in 2018.
Who are Peoplebox.ai's investors?
Peoplebox.ai's investors include Y Combinator, Nexus Venture Partners.
Where is Peoplebox.ai headquartered?
Peoplebox.ai is headquartered in Bengaluru, IN.