Pranjali Awasthi, a 16-year-old Indian prodigy, has created ripples in the tech world with her AI business, Delv.AI. During the Miami Tech Week event, Awasthi disclosed her idea, revealing that she founded the company in January 2022 and successfully raised $450,000 (Rs 3.7 crore) in funding.
Notably, Delv.AI already has a team of ten devoted specialists listed on its LinkedIn profile. During the ceremony, Awasthi cited her father as the key inspiration for her entrepreneurial journey.
Awasthi’s interest in technology began at a young age, fueled by her engineer father’s enthusiasm for advancing computer science education in schools. This encouragement inspired her to start coding at the age of seven, setting the framework for her incredible career.
When her family moved to Florida when she was 11, she was given access to computer science seminars and competitive math programs. Her internship at Florida International University’s research labs at the age of 13 laid the groundwork for her entrepreneurial adventure.
Awasthi worked on machine learning projects while attending virtual high school as a result of the ongoing pandemic. During this time, OpenAI published ChatGPT-3 beta, prompting the notion to use AI to streamline research data extraction and summarisation.
Delv.During this period, AI was conceived, with Awasthi’s objective being to use machine learning to improve data extraction methods and destroy data silos.
A crucial milestone in her path happened when she attended an AI startup accelerator in Miami run by Backend Capital’s Lucy Guo and Dave Fontenot. Acceptance into the program demonstrated Awasthi’s unwavering commitment to achieving her aspirations, even if it meant temporarily postponing her high school education. She mentioned that the Delv.AI beta launch on Product Hunt was a huge success. For those who are new, Product Hunt is a website that allows the free distribution of software.
According to Awasthi, the major goal of Delv.AI is to assist researchers in rapidly finding specific information across the ever-expanding realm of internet content.
The accelerator program was critical in assisting Awasthi in obtaining financing from On Deck and Village Global. Delv.AI has raised $450,000 (roughly Rs 3.7 crore) in total finance and has an estimated valuation of $12 million (Rs 100 crore).
While education is still a crucial importance in Awasthi’s Indian parents’ eyes, she has chosen to postpone her college plans for the time being, prioritizing her responsibilities and unrelenting love for her enterprise. Awasthi plans to return to college in the future to get business skills that would help her in her entrepreneurial career. Awasthi handles several aspects of Delv.AI, from development to operations and customer service, as the leader of a small but active team.
