AI infra provider Neysa to offer credits to startups from October

Platform-as-a-service startup Neysa, which offers AI workflow infrastructure services, is set to launch a credit facility for startups next month.

The Mumbai-based company plans to officially announce this initiative at the Nvidia AI Summit in Mumbai in October.

Founded in 2023, Neysa deploys and scales up customer machine learning projects through three offerings—Nebula, Palvera, and Aegis. While these solutions mainly cater to enterprises, the upcoming credit offering will extend their accessibility to smaller companies and early-stage startups.

At a fireside chat during TechSparks Bengaluru 2024, YourStory's flagship startup-tech summit, Neysa Founder and CEO Sharad Sanghi said that the company often works with startups to build their applications. “Our differentiation is that we are an open platform and provide a lot of handholding on how to leverage AI.”

Sanghi explained that companies often do need to invest in costly AI infrastructure and can avoid unnecessary expenses. Neysa also advises businesses on how to effectively use AI.

"For example, when you're inferencing, you don't need expensive GPUs (graphic processing units)," he said in a conversation with YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma. AI inferencing involves using an AI model to analyse new data and make predictions.

Neysa is also exploring mixed-compute solutions for processing Indic languages and is keeping a close watch not only on Nvidia, the market leader in AI chips, but also on companies like AMD, Intel, Amazon, and Grok. However, according to Sanghi, it will take time for India’s semiconductor industry to reach the maturity needed to rival Nvidia.

Sanghi emphasised that businesses do not necessarily have to rely on Nvidia’s platforms, as there are alternatives available.

Prior to founding Neysa, Sanghi established India’s first private data centre through Netmagic Solutions in 1998, which was later acquired by NTT in 2012.

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Today, in the case of Neysa, Sanghi admitted that there is a certain amount of hype which has been built around AI but strongly believes it has the potential to disrupt many industries. “One needs to get their use case and priorities right,” he remarked.

Sanghi noted that AI is here to stay and entrepreneurs will have to start thinking about leveraging this platform for disruptive solutions beyond just optimising productivity or savings.

He also felt that those startups which have the AI edge in their offerings will find it easy to raise funding from venture capitalists. “There is no funding winter as far as AI startups are concerned,” he remarked.

Neysa is now looking to expand its offerings into international markets, including Japan, the Middle East, and Europe. Earlier this year, the startup raised $20 million in seed funding and is now seeking to secure Series A capital.

Reflecting on his return to entrepreneurship, Sanghi revealed that after his tenure with Netmagic, he felt a certain stagnation in learning and sought out new technologies. Despite the focus on cutting-edge innovations, he believes businesses should be built in a traditional manner, emphasising strong performance. His mantra for success is continuous learning and innovation.