Tag: Kalaari Capital

Bengaluru-based recruitment tech startup HireBound has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Kalaari Capital.

The round also saw participation from Antler, wealthtech startup Infinyte Club, and talent solutions provider CareerNet.

The startup plans to deploy the fresh capital to accelerate product development, expand go-to-market operations, and drive international growth over the next 12–24 months.

Prior to this round, HireBound had raised $348,000 from investors including Antler.

Founded in 2024 by Sharad Vij and Kumar Vikramaditya, HireBound is building autonomous AI agents designed to automate the end-to-end hiring lifecycle. The platform handles sourcing, candidate engagement, screening, and evaluation, operating across WhatsApp, email, SMS, and voice channels, while integrating seamlessly with existing Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and HRMS platforms.

At the core of HireBound’s offering is its AI recruiter persona, “June,” which functions as a 24/7 virtual recruiter to manage high-volume candidate interactions and initial screening. By moving beyond traditional ATS systems that act primarily as systems of record, HireBound positions its AI agents as outcome-driven tools for modern hiring teams.

HireBound claims its platform has already facilitated over three million candidate conversations and has been trained on more than two million resumes and 30,000 job descriptions. It primarily serves staffing firms and enterprise talent acquisition teams across India and the US through SaaS and managed hiring models.

The company currently operates with a 15-member team spanning product, engineering, AI/ML, delivery, and go-to-market functions. Sharad Vij, who previously worked at LinkedIn, Naukri.com, and Mettl, serves as CEO, while co-founder Kumar Vikramaditya brings prior experience from Zuma (Y Combinator W21).

Modulus Housing, a proptech startup, has raised ₹70 crore in a Series A round led by Kalaari Capital, Hero, and Samarthya, with participation from SVAS, Sigma, Zetwerk founder Srinath, Sanjiv Rangrass, and other investors. This marks the company’s first institutional investment.

The funding will support expansion across Indian and select global markets, development of next-generation modular systems, advanced R&D, and wider deployment of its cloud manufacturing network. The company also plans to grow its green concrete technology for distributed infrastructure projects.

Founded in 2018 by Shreeram Ravichandran and P. Gobinath, Modulus Housing builds modular structures using a factory-made construction model. Its network of partner factories and proprietary product suite enables production of low-rise infrastructure through a cloud manufacturing approach.

The company is headquartered in Chennai and plans to expand its operations across India and emerging markets.

The company reports cumulative revenue of over ₹200 crore, with operating revenue rising from ₹39 crore in FY23 to ₹54 crore in FY24.

Modulus Housing has delivered more than 1,500 buildings across 21 states in India and several regions in Africa, covering hospitals, schools, cold-storage units, site offices, and other distributed infrastructure needs.

Pype AI, a healthtech startup building voice-based AI agents for hospitals and clinics, has raised $1.2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Kalaari Capital. Wyser Capital and Tenity also participated in the round.

The company will use the funds to strengthen its healthcare communication platform and expand into the United States market.

Founded in 2024 by Dhruv Mehra and Ashish Tripathy, Pype AI develops AI front desk systems that automate routine patient interactions. The agents manage tasks such as appointment scheduling, follow-ups, treatment preparation, and round-the-clock support.

Trained on medical conversational datasets, these systems are designed to handle patient communication reliably and help hospitals reduce missed appointments and operational overhead.

Along with its voice agents, the company has built Whispey, an open-source observability platform with more than 40 evaluations that track performance, compliance, and safety. Through integrations with hospital electronic medical records, Pype AI helps facilities streamline patient coordination and improve adherence without relying on manual processes or outdated call systems.

Pype AI is currently live across several healthcare facilities in India and manages more than 85 percent of incoming patient queries without human intervention. The company is integrating with platforms such as Zocdoc, Epic and Cerner as it begins onboarding US-based clinic networks.

Over the next year, Pype AI plans to expand its footprint to more than 50 hospitals and clinic chains by mid-2026. The team is also working with medical experts to publish research on the impact of AI-driven communication on patient outcomes.

Enterprise AI data infrastructure startup MeshDefend has raised $2.3 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Kalaari Capital, with participation from Kettleborough VC and several industry leaders. This marks the company’s first external capital raise since its inception.

The funding will be used to develop MeshDefend’s AI-native operating system, enhance product innovation, and strengthen its go-to-market strategy. The company also plans to scale enterprise deployments across the US and European markets and expand its ecosystem through partnerships with infrastructure vendors.

Founded in 2025 by former Dell executives Tejas Pandit and Ravi Chitloor, MeshDefend is building an AI-driven platform to manage enterprise data infrastructure across backup, storage, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. Its flagship product, Agent Mesh™, simplifies and automates complex infrastructure management for large enterprises, managed service providers (MSPs), and global system integrators (GSIs).

MeshDefend’s platform focuses on automating Day-2 operations in data protection and storage, allowing IT teams to monitor, manage, and resolve infrastructure issues across multi-vendor systems. Its vendor-agnostic approach ensures seamless integration and interoperability within diverse enterprise ecosystems.

The Bengaluru-based company is currently working with partners in IT services, GSIs, and infrastructure solution providers to refine use cases suited for large-scale enterprise environments. By integrating AI-driven operational intelligence, MeshDefend seeks to help organizations secure, optimize, and simplify their data infrastructure in an increasingly complex cloud landscape.