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Key Takeaways
- Insurge AI builds autonomous AI meeting agents that replace human-led sales and support conversations end-to-end
- The startup secured Rs 15 lakhs from ISB DLabs and is raising US$500,000 in seed funding to scale globally
- Founded by two engineering students, Insurge AI targets a global AI SaaS market projected at US$367.6 billion by 2034
Insurge AI, a Hyderabad-based SaaS startup founded by two engineering students, is turning heads across India’s tech scene in 2026. Rohith Vegesna from Manipal Institute of Technology and Tanush Agarwal from IIT Kharagpur have built what they claim is the world’s first AI meeting agent platform – one that conducts full sales conversations without a single human in the room. Backed by ISB DLabs with Rs 15 lakhs in pre-seed funding and a $500,000 seed round in active discussions, this one is hard to ignore.
From FIITJEE Classmates to Startup Co-founders
Most co-founder stories start in a dorm room or a college canteen. For Rohith Vegesna and Tanush Agarwal, it started in a Hyderabad coaching centre in 2021.
The two first met while cramming for engineering entrance exams at a FIITJEE centre in Hyderabad. Late-night conversations about AI breakthroughs, tech disruptions, and building something from scratch quickly became a shared obsession.
By 2023, both had secured seats at top institutions. Rohith joined Manipal Institute of Technology for data science. Tanush enrolled at IIT Kharagpur for industrial and systems engineering. Different cities, same dream.
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Their formal journey began in July 2024 when they registered Openzo Softcorp Private Limited, the parent company behind what would eventually become Insurge AI.
The Pivot That Changed Everything
Before Insurge AI, the duo launched a hyperlocal grocery delivery app called Openzo in September 2024. It briefly scaled to over 1,000 monthly users and hit a peak monthly GMV of Rs 8 lakhs – a solid early signal.
But razor-thin margins and high operational costs forced a shutdown in January 2025. The total loss came to around Rs 1.2 lakhs – painful, but defining.
What followed was a sharp pivot. The founders won a Rs 4 lakh grant from MeitY under its GENESIS Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme to build an AI-powered shopping agent. That concept slowly evolved into something far more ambitious.
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Rohith took a sabbatical from Manipal to join the I-Venture Immersive programme at ISB Hyderabad, a full-time residential track for early-stage founders. Tanush continued building remotely from IIT Kharagpur. Together, the engineering students spent ten months on research and development, navigating technical hurdles and financial constraints with very limited external support.
In June 2025, Insurge AI was officially founded as a SaaS startup focused on sales enablement and autonomous customer engagement.
How the AI Meeting Agent Platform Actually Works
This is where things get genuinely interesting. Insurge AI has built AI meeting agents that conduct fully personalised, voice-led, and visual conversations – entirely without a human representative in the picture.
These agents explain products, run real-time demos, filter leads, answer questions, and handle onboarding or post-sales support on demand. Companies simply embed the agent on their website or share a direct link over email, WhatsApp, or LinkedIn.
The moment a visitor arrives, the AI agent reads their intent, customises the conversation, presents relevant visuals in real time, and qualifies them as a sales lead – all in one seamless interaction.
As Startup INDIAX has reported in its AI and DeepTech coverage, autonomous AI tools targeting enterprise sales workflows are among the fastest-growing categories in India’s startup ecosystem right now. Insurge AI is positioning itself squarely at the center of that shift.
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“We realised this is the best time in history to build an AI company, and solving for meetings is one of the most critical problems in business workflows. Over one billion meetings happen every single day, and almost all of them are still human-led,” says Tanush Agarwal, co-founder and CTO of Insurge AI.
The platform currently serves SaaS and cloud software companies, banks, insurance firms, real estate platforms, healthcare providers, edtech companies, and staffing agencies – essentially any sector where human-led meetings create costly bottlenecks. Its modular middleware approach gives it an edge over tools built directly on third-party APIs, keeping costs controlled and performance high.
ISB DLabs Backing and the Road to a $500K Seed Round
In November 2025, Insurge AI secured Rs 15 lakhs in pre-seed funding from DLabs at ISB Hyderabad, one of India’s most reputed startup incubators attached to a top-tier business school.
Full-scale commercial operations launched in early April 2026 after extensive testing. The startup is now in active discussions to raise US$500,000 in seed funding to accelerate its next phase of growth.
Much of the early development was bootstrapped using personal savings and the MeitY grant. That discipline kept the burn rate lean while the team remained focused on product-market fit over premature scaling.
“We have raised very limited external investor funding so far. This disciplined approach allowed us to prioritise achieving solid product-market fit before scaling spend,” explains Tanush Agarwal.
The revenue model is a SaaS subscription structure. Enterprises pay monthly or annual fees based on the number of AI meeting agents deployed and the volume of interactions. Usage-based pricing tiers are also planned for high-volume customers across new verticals.
The global AI SaaS market is projected to reach US$367.6 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 36.59%, according to Fortune Business Insights. For a startup that launched commercial operations just weeks ago, Insurge AI’s entry timing could not be sharper.
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Netizens React
The launch of Insurge AI has triggered a wave of responses across LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Indian startup communities online.
One user wrote, “Finally a product that solves something real. I spend over 60% of my week in pre-sales calls that an AI could honestly handle better. This is the startup I’ve been waiting for.”
Another commenter raised a fair point: “Curious how this handles tricky objections in live demos. AI handles scripted flows well, but real customers throw curveballs. Would love to see a stress test.”
A third user took a wider view: “Two students from Manipal and IIT Kharagpur building what could be a billion-dollar SaaS category. This is exactly why India’s startup ecosystem keeps surprising everyone.”
What’s Next for Insurge AI
The expansion roadmap starts with India, then moves to the US, UK, Middle East, and Southeast Asia – markets where high-volume sales meeting workflows are a known pain point for enterprises.
The founders plan to grow a full-time team, build domain-specific features for each target vertical, and sharpen their understanding of real customer workflows through hands-on feedback loops.
“Our vision is to become the world’s default AI-powered communication interface between companies and their customers – agents that can explain, demo, onboard, and support any user, anywhere in the world, at any time, at infinite scale,” says Rohith Vegesna, CEO of Insurge AI.
For a startup born from a coaching centre friendship and shaped by a failed grocery app, Insurge AI is marking the next phase of what autonomous AI can deliver for modern business.
What Do You Think?
Could AI meeting agents completely replace human sales conversations in the next five years? Drop your thoughts in the comments and share this story with your network. Explore more breakthrough Indian startup stories on Startup INDIAX!
FAQs
What is Insurge AI?
Insurge AI is a Hyderabad-based SaaS startup that builds autonomous AI meeting agents capable of running personalised, voice-led, and visual sales or support conversations without any human involvement.
Who founded Insurge AI?
Insurge AI was co-founded by Rohith Vegesna (CEO) from Manipal Institute of Technology and Tanush Agarwal (CTO) from IIT Kharagpur, in June 2025.
How does an AI meeting agent work?
The agent embeds on a company website or is shared via a link. It greets visitors, explains products using real-time visuals, qualifies them as leads, and handles onboarding – all without a human representative.
Has Insurge AI raised funding?
es. Insurge AI raised Rs 15 lakhs in pre-seed funding from ISB DLabs in November 2025 and is currently in discussions to close a US$500,000 seed round.
Which industries does Insurge AI serve?
Insurge AI serves SaaS firms, banks, insurance companies, real estate platforms, healthcare providers, edtech companies, and staffing agencies – any sector where high-volume customer meetings create operational bottlenecks.
