It seems like a 16-year-old Indian girl is stepping onto the stage of AI. Her name is Pranjali Awasthi and she’s behind Delv.AI, an AI startup, which is said to be valued at around $12 million. The startup was founded in 2022 and Pranjali Awasthi had secured funding of about $450,000 to kickstart the venture. Delv.AI has a team of 10 people, all working under the guidance of a teenager. Pranjali Awasthi is said to oversee various facets of Delv.AI, from coding to operations and customer service.
At the core of Pranjali Awasthi’s tech fascination is her dad, who was an engineer, who promoted computer science education in schools. His influence is said to have sparked an interest in tech at a young age, setting her on a path to coding when she was 7. Pranjali Awasthi’s family had relocated from India to Florida when she was 11. This was said to give her more access to computer science classes and competitive math programmes. There, she landed an internship at the research labs of Florida International University. During this internship, she delved into machine learning projects, all while continuing her high school education virtually, a situation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. As Pranjali Awasthi ventured into the realms of machine learning, a ChatGPT-3 beta version by OpenAI was released. This was said to ignite the idea for her startup Delv.AI.
She was said to have envisioned using AI to streamline data extraction and summarization. Data extraction is about collecting some data from a larger source, kind of like picking out important parts from a book or a document. Data summarization is about condensing information that has been collected. Using AI, the vision was to improve and automate processes, instead of manually sifting through data. So, it’s like having an assistant reading a book for you, pulling out the most important bits and giving you points that capture all the key information. This could save a lot of time and effort, when dealing with big datasets and lots of text. The primary objective of Delv.AI is said to be assisting researchers in efficiently accessing specific information within the realm of online content. It is said to aim to dismantle data silos and streamline the process of data extraction.
So, the goal may be making information more accessible, manageable and useful in a world where data overload is the new norm. Product Hunt is a platform that facilitates the sharing of software and tech innovations. Delv.AI had been launched by her on this platform. Pranjali Awasthi had, also, joined an AI startup accelerator in Miami under the leadership of folks from early-stage fund Backend Capital. The accelerator programme is said to have helped Pranjali Awasthi secure investments from On Deck and Village Global. In a post-pandemic world, more than ever, with much more access to information and technology, an entrepreneur can come from anywhere.
