Startup funding in India kept its momentum on 19 October 2026, as AI hiring platform Hunar.AI announced it has raised ₹40 crore in a Series A funding round led by Blume Ventures. The round takes the company's total funding to ₹65 crore to date.
Who backed the round
Alongside lead investor Blume Ventures, the round saw participation from Hyderabad Angels Fund (HAF.VC), Together Fund, Seedstars and AVNM Ventures. Individual backers included PhysicsWallah co-founders Prateek Maheshwari and Alakh Pandey, and MediaMint co-founder Aditya Vuchi.
What Hunar.AI does
Founded in 2022 by Krishna Khandelwal and Shantanu Bhattacharyya, Hunar.AI builds a conversational AI platform that helps companies hire, train and retain frontline workers — one of the largest yet most underserved opportunities in enterprise AI, according to CEO Khandelwal. Its two products, Hunar Voice and Hunar Connect, deploy AI agents over voice calls, WhatsApp and chat to handle tasks such as finding and screening candidates, scheduling interviews, onboarding recruits, training workers and following up with employees. The company serves businesses across quick commerce, e-commerce, logistics, mobility, financial services, healthcare and retail.
How the capital will be used
The fresh funds will go towards AI infrastructure, product development, and sales and market expansion, targeting businesses that need to recruit and manage large workforces across locations and languages. Khandelwal said the funding will deepen the company's technology capabilities and expand its reach across industries and markets.
Why it matters for founders
Frontline-workforce AI is emerging as a distinct, fundable enterprise category in India — multilingual voice and chat agents that execute hiring workflows, not just dashboards. If you're building applied AI for underserved blue-collar segments, this round shows deep understanding of industry workflows beats general-purpose AI demos.