SUMMARY
Launched in 2020, this startup leverages Gen AI to optimise information discovery on the internet for their client enterprises
Since its inception, the startup has raised $200K from angel investors, along with INR 50 Lakh worth of equity-free grants from the MeitY
Counting SBI, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers and NSE TalentSprint in its client pool, the startup plans on touching $500K in annual recurring revenue by the end of FY25
Ever since Google came into existence, finding answers to any query has become a piece of cake. While an internet user can access relevant data in just one click, all thanks to the god of search engines, enterprises (large or small) have largely missed having a Google-like mechanism that could help employees find answers to all enterprise-related queries.
However, much has changed since the arrival of GenAI-powered virtual assistants that promptly help staffers fetch information hidden between bundles of documents, which otherwise would have taken hours to be retrieved.
Despite this, hallucinations (or misleading results) remain a big issue for the users of this emerging tech. Well, the issue at the core is that even the most advanced LLMs today have a hallucination rate of 7%. While this rate may seem scant, it has the potential to cause havoc at the enterprise level.
This is where Subtle.AI steps in with less than 1% hallucinations. Launched in 2020, the Hyderabad-based startup offers knowledge agents that can provide answers and automate tasks like form filling, ticket management and other internal queries with high accuracy.
The company has logged in a revenue of INR 55 Lakh since 2020. The startup plans on touching $500K in annual recurring revenue by the end of FY25.
Since its inception, the startup has raised $200K from angel investors, along with INR 50 Lakh worth of equity-free grants from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Currently, the startup is in talks to raise a seed funding round of $1Mn. With these funds, founder of the startup Vishnu Ramesh envisions touching an ARR of $1Mn ARR within nine months.
The Story Behind The Genesis Of Subtle.AI
While studying computer science at BITS Pilani, Ramesh identified a major gap in the use of the internet. He observed that while search engines allow users to find relevant information, a search can often produce such a large amount of data that it becomes hard to get hands on the most appropriate and highest-quality information.
In his third year then, Ramesh thought of developing a search engine or a tool that could cater to the need for high-quality data among individuals and enterprises. For this, he joined hands with Manish Shrivastava (now The Chief Scientist of Subtl.AI), an IIIT Hyderabad assistant professor, to build a tech which Ramesh titled ‘A Private Google’.
To build this, the duo leveraged the power of AI. They believed that the tech would help them parse through data sets more closely and rapidly. With this, the foundation stone of their tech and venture was laid by the duo of the pupil and abbot.
Subtl.AI’s Tryst With SBI
While building their tech, the cofounders lucked out when State Bank Of India (SBI) approached IIT for a solution that could expedite the process of retrieving information for its 2.5 Lakh employees.
The problem at hand was that information discovery was taking too much time at the country’s largest bank. The bank wanted a solution to bring this time down.
The bank’s quest for a viable solution intersected perfectly with the duo’s vision to develop ‘a private Google’.
Initially, the duo developed software that catered to a chunk of personnel requirements of the bank with an accuracy of 85%. This made way for detailed research and development, finally paving the way for the launch of Subtl.AI in 2020.
Spearheading Subtle.AI’s product engineering vertical since 2019 has been Sarath Chandra, who was roped in as the third cofounder in 2021.
Subtle.AI’s Playbook So Far
Since its inception, the startup has been supplying businesses with data analytics software to analyse and extract documented data in response to queries. Further, it also gives the exact reference points from websites, papers, videos, and knowledge databases for its discoveries to the end user for their further perusal.
The company has built the software by specialising OpenAI’s LLM model. However, Ramesh said that customer experience is not just restricted to the LLM ops but extends to a total of six products that the startup offers.
It provides a multi-modal tool that combines picture and text recognition to create query responses and recognise cultural subtleties and regional language differences for automatic system updates.
Currently, Subtl.AI is focussing on solving backend operation gaps for enterprises operating in industries like banking, education, and insurance. Apart from SBI, the startup counts Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers and NSE TalentSprint as its other clients. The AI startup claims that it is helping 2.5 Lakh SBI branch officers save 30 Lakh hours a year.
Subtl.AI’s Tech Stack And Outlook
Explaining the company’s offerings, Ramesh said that Subtl.AI’s products are tailored for their clients. Subtl.AI’s private knowledge assistant, which is a retrieval language model that extracts information at a granular level, helps its clients get sharp answers with almost zero error rate.
However, the startup is focussed on building its LLM in-house. “A lot of our focus is on developing and releasing an in-house LLM that we have been working on for the past 8-9 months based on our learnings in the space. While LLMs have become the trend, we did bank on them early on to build a sturdy retrieval product. We’d like to make our own LLM open to public use within this calendar year,” Ramesh said.
The company is banking on the trend of an increasing reliance on AI applications to make business operations more seamless. While edtech companies are utilising the tech to enhance learning outcomes for students, fintech entities are leveraging the tech to take care of key functions like customer services.
In the space, Subtle.AI locks horns with global entities like Unsupervised, Navikenz, and Botpress. However, no Indian company is active in deploying AI to make the information extraction process simpler and more accurate. Per Ramesh, Subtl.AI’s closest competitor is Canada-based Cohere, which is an enterprise AI platform.
As of now, Subtle.AI’s offerings for the Indian enterprise tech space seem to be unique. Also, it boasts having the backing of some of the biggest businesses in India. Plus, it is one of the few Indian startups building LLMs in the homegrown GenAI space expected to cross the $17 Bn mark by 2030.
