How This 16-Year-Old Built an AI Startup Valued at ₹100 Crore

When conversations around artificial intelligence began dominating the technology industry, many entrepreneurs rushed to build products around the trend. Pranjali Awasthi's journey, however, started years before AI became mainstream.

Born in India, Pranjali developed an interest in programming at the age of seven after being introduced to computer science by her father, an engineer who believed coding should be taught alongside other core subjects. When her family moved to Florida in the United States, she gained access to advanced computer science and mathematics programs that further strengthened her interest in technology.

By the age of 13, Pranjali was interning at Florida International University's Neural Dynamics of Control Lab, where she worked on machine learning projects while continuing her studies. The experience exposed her to a recurring challenge faced by researchers: extracting useful insights from large volumes of academic papers, reports, and unstructured data required significant manual effort.

Rather than treating it as just another research problem, she saw an opportunity to build a solution.

In January 2022, at the age of 16, Pranjali founded Delv.AI, an AI-powered research platform designed to help researchers, students, and organizations search, organize, summarize, and extract information from large datasets and documents more efficiently. Instead of replacing researchers, the platform focuses on reducing the time spent locating relevant information across multiple sources.

The startup quickly attracted attention within the technology ecosystem. Delv.AI participated in startup accelerator programs and secured approximately $450,000 in early funding from investors including Village Global and On Deck. Reports also state that the company reached a valuation of around $12 million (approximately ₹100 crore) within a relatively short period after its launch.

What makes Pranjali's journey noteworthy is not simply her age, but the sequence of experiences that led to the company. Years of learning to code, early exposure to academic research, and direct observation of a real-world problem all contributed to the product she eventually built.

Her story also reflects a broader shift in entrepreneurship. Increasingly, successful startups are emerging from founders who identify highly specific problems within industries such as research, healthcare, education, and enterprise software, then use artificial intelligence to improve existing workflows rather than replace them.

Since launching Delv.AI, Pranjali has continued working in artificial intelligence and has also been associated with newer AI projects, further expanding her work beyond research automation.

For aspiring founders, the lesson extends beyond building an AI company at a young age. Delv.AI demonstrates that meaningful startups often begin with deep curiosity, practical experience, and a clear understanding of a problem worth solving. Technology may evolve rapidly, but businesses that create lasting value are usually built by founders who spend time understanding the people they aim to help before writing the first line of code.