Sharad Sanghi’s Neysa Raises $20 Million in Seed Funding Led by Matrix Partners
Neysa, India’s first AI cloud and platform-as-a-service startup, has secured $20 million in seed funding, led by Matrix Partners India, Nexus Venture Partners and NTTVC.
Neysa is the second entrepreneurial stint of Sharad Sanghi, who is considered a pioneer of cloud computing in India. His first venture, Netmagic Solutions, a cloud and data center company, was acquired by Japanese data center giant NTT Communication. This time, Sanghi has co-founded the company with Anindya Das.
The funding will help drive the Genative-AI cloud platform as a service and observability for India and global markets. Neysa will focus on three areas: AI in the cloud, network observability and security observability.
According to Sanghi, Founder and CEO, this offering from Neysa will be unique for an Indian company. While there are players in the AI infrastructure space, network observability and security is a fast-growing space with hardly any competition in India.
“Each of these spaces has enormous growth potential. The AI infrastructure is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 30 percent. More than 20 percent growth in AI offerings as platform services and about 11-15 percent in the observation and recovery space. Moreover, we are building our own intellectual property from India,” he told Business Standard.
Neysa will offer a suite of Generative AI platforms and services, allowing customers to cost-effectively discover, plan, deploy and manage their Generative AI projects and secure their AI landscapes in the cloud and at the edge in a consumption-based model. Neysa plans to release its services in the third quarter of 2024.
The startup has been in stealth mode for about fifteen months and Sanghi has put in his own money. The current round of funding will be used to build infrastructure, accelerate research and development initiatives, strengthen technical teams and finally the go-to-market strategy.
“Our goal is to leverage this funding to push the boundaries of innovation and help our customers with the power of our end-to-end Generative AI Platform as a Service ecosystem and our AI-designed Observability Platform, in a way those demonstrable and tangible results for their business,” says Sanghi.
Anindya Das, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, added: “Neysa was born from a deep understanding of the daily challenges of managing and scaling cloud and the transformative potential of AI. This funding furthers our mission to democratize AI. “empowering companies of all sizes to drive innovation and fuel growth. We are building a future where AI integration is seamless and intuitive and fundamentally changes the way we interact with technology.”
Neysa has also managed to raise $20 million in seed funding when startups find it difficult to raise money.
Avnish Bajaj, managing director, Matrix Partners India said, “Having known Sharad and Andy for a long time, it is our privilege to partner with them on their next venture. Companies around the world, and even more so in India, are eager for expertise to help them transition to AI-native cloud computing, and there is no better and more experienced team in India to work with! We are excited about Neysa’s future and the journey ahead.”
Neysa’s initial workloads will be hosted in NTT’s data centers. Sanghi added that as Neysa focuses on AI and generative AI, it will also invest in GPU-based servers.
Jishnu Bhattacharjee, managing director of Nexus Venture Partners said: “The rapid rise in demand for AI globally calls for an AI-native cloud platform that Neysa is ready to provide. Having previously known and supported Sharad and Andy at Netmagic, we are excited to partner with them again in Neysa’s journey as they shape the future of AI cloud services!”
Although Sanghi will no longer be a board member at NTT, his ties with the Japanese company will continue. He will serve on the board of directors of NTT’s data center activities.
Vab Goel, founder of NTTVC and board member of NTT Data Inc. commented: “Generative AI is a key topic of every boardroom discussion. Neysa will help companies gain a competitive advantage by accelerating a new era of productivity. We are excited to continue our partnership with Sharad and Andy.”
First print: April 10, 2024 | 6:10 am IST