These brothers who code, and husband-wife duos, are bringing advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to varied sectors, from banking to retail
Abhinav (left) and Raghav Aggarwal
Image: Mexy Xavier
Abhinav Aggarwal and Raghav Aggarwal once teamed up with Forbes and got their AI-based interactive voice bot to power a Warren Buffet likeness to answer questions on finance and the economy. It was quite a hit. In August this year, they were granted a US patent related to the underlying technology of that bot, along with another one for some of the algorithms they wrote at their company Fluid AI.
The brothers, Forbes India 30 Under 30 winners, dropped out of business school, one from Indian School of Business and the other from IIM Ahmedabad, to start Fluid AI. They bootstrapped it in 2012, and “we continue to be quite ‘Marwari’ in our approach to it,” Abhinav tells Forbes India. Meaning, they remain shrewd about ownership and running the business like the Marwari community in India is known for.
They have been offered everything from VC money to buy-outs, but the brothers have chosen to keep their business bootstrapped. It has been profitable pretty much from the get-go. In fact, this year, revenues surged 2x and profits, 4x, Abhinav, the CEO, says. Elder brother Raghav is the managing director.
They had actually started out building a learning management software, for the education tech space, but being “very passionate about technology”, took to AI. And then, “AI is a great barrier to entry, because it is an area where you cannot just throw people at the problem, and a small team like ours can make an impact,” he says.
(This story appears in the 24 September, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)