India’s AI landscape is poised for significant growth, even though the country has yet to take a leading role in global AI innovation. Businesses across the nation are increasingly turning to AI for efficiency improvements, and tech companies are promoting AI advancements as transformative solutions. A report by Nasscom and BCG predicts that India’s AI market will reach $17 billion by 2027, highlighting the potential for AI in the region.
Neysa, a Mumbai-based startup founded by veteran tech entrepreneur Sharad Sanghi, aims to capitalize on this growing demand by providing AI infrastructure and platform services to both local and international businesses. Founded in 2023, Neysa offers a range of services, including AI and machine learning infrastructure, tailored to the specific needs of enterprise customers. The company also provides consulting services to help clients right-size their infrastructure and optimize their AI models.
Before launching Neysa, Sanghi spent 27 years at Netmagic, a data center company he founded, which was acquired by Japan's NTT Data in 2016. He stepped down as CEO of Netmagic in mid-2023 to focus on Neysa, with the goal of delivering AI-driven infrastructure services.
Initially starting as an infrastructure provider, Neysa introduced its core platform, Velocis, in July 2023, which offers on-demand access to computing infrastructure. The company plans to expand its offerings by launching a developer platform and an inference service before the end of the year. Additionally, it is working on enhancing infrastructure management with tools for improved observability and security of AI workloads.
Neysa seeks to differentiate itself from global cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure by offering flexibility. The startup allows clients to choose between public cloud or private clusters and builds its platforms on open-source technologies, avoiding vendor lock-in. This flexibility has attracted attention from local businesses, many of whom seek cost-effective AI infrastructure solutions.
The company recently secured $30 million in a Series A funding round, led by NTTVC, Z47, and Nexus Venture Partners, following an earlier seed round of $20 million. This funding will be used to enhance Neysa’s infrastructure, expand its research and development efforts, and support its go-to-market strategies. Neysa also plans to use the capital to launch a generative AI acceleration cloud service.
Currently, Neysa serves around 12 paying customers and is running six large proof-of-concept projects. Most of its customers operate on private clusters, while the rest use public cloud services. Although Neysa’s customer base is currently in India, the company plans to expand internationally with its next round of funding, which Sanghi expects to secure in the coming months.
As Neysa prepares to grow its team and capabilities, the company aims to meet the increasing demand for AI infrastructure both within India and globally, positioning itself as a formidable player in the AI infrastructure space.
