Three IIT Bombay Graduates Selected for Y Combinator
A team of three graduates from IIT Bombay has achieved a significant milestone by being selected for Y Combinator, one of the world’s most prestigious startup accelerators. The accelerator offers $500,000 in funding and has a highly competitive acceptance rate of just 0.1%. Their innovative solution aims to automate the testing of voice AI systems against real-world scenarios, saving companies hundreds of hours in manual testing. This approach improves accuracy, reduces errors, and enhances efficiency in voice AI systems.
The Problem with Voice AI Testing
Voice AI technology is becoming crucial in industries like customer support and outbound sales. However, testing these systems to ensure they work flawlessly in real-world conditions is often time-consuming and prone to human error. Co-founder Tarush Agarwal explained, “We noticed a huge gap in how companies were testing their voice AI. It’s often time-consuming and prone to human error.”
Introducing Vocera
Their startup, Vocera, automates the testing of voice AI agents, allowing companies to simulate real-life scenarios and evaluate their systems more effectively. This helps businesses save time, improve accuracy, and ensure their voice AI performs reliably before deployment. Co-founder Shashij Gupta elaborated, “We wanted to solve this by creating an automated system that can test voice agents against a variety of customer personas and give actionable insights, ensuring they respond accurately and effectively.”
The Significance of Y Combinator
Being selected for Y Combinator is a game-changer for Vocera. Co-founder Sidhant Kabra shared his excitement about the opportunity: “Y Combinator is a tremendous opportunity for us to accelerate our growth and bring our voice AI testing platform to more companies worldwide.”
Y Combinator has a strong track record of supporting successful startups, including Indian unicorns like Razorpay, Groww, Meesho, and Zepto, along with global giants such as Airbnb and Dropbox.
Meet the Cofounders
The three cofounders of Vocera bring a wealth of experience to the table:
– Tarush Agarwal: Tarush previously developed ultra-low-latency systems in quantitative finance, turning a loss-making trading strategy into a profitable desk generating millions in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) within three months.
– Shashij Gupta: Shashij authored a highly-cited research paper on transformer testing at ETH Zurich, worked on NLP research at Google, and served as a quantitative researcher.
– Sidhant Kabra: Sidhant has advised CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in FMCG and medical devices. He also scaled an AI edtech startup from zero to over 200,000 users in just six months.
The three cofounders have been friends for seven years, having met during their time at IIT Bombay. Together, they are now setting out to redefine how voice AI systems are tested and optimized for the real world.
