We see Agentic AI as a Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity: Srikanth Velamakanni With a team of more than 5000 professionals worldwide, Fractal has also built cutting-edge AI platforms such as Vaidya.ai, which applies AI to assist people in medical diagnosis and Kaleido, India's first text to image diffusion model

Tech 25: Srikanth Velamakanni, Co-founder, Group Chief Executive and Executive Vice Chairman of Fractal

Fractal Analytics was founded in 2000 with a vision to empower organisations through data-driven decision-making. At a time when analytics was still nascent, Fractal believed in the transformative potential of data and AI to solve complex business challenges. Over the years, Fractal has evolved into a global AI powerhouse, serving over 100 Fortune 500 companies across sectors.

Fractal first started looking at AI in 2010, when AI research had started seeing some results with speech analytics. The company started Fractal Sciences, an R&D division in 2011, to work on AI products spending about 13 per cent of annual revenue on R&D. As technology progressed, Fractal incubated AI companies within its fold, starting with Qure.ai in 2015 under a newer entity, Fractal Alpha, and focused on building AI products for industry-specific use cases. Fractal Alpha includes companies that are incubated by Fractal, like Qure.ai, Crux Intelligence, Cuddle.ai, and Theremin.ai.

With a team of more than 5000 professionals worldwide, Fractal has also built cutting-edge AI platforms such as Vaidya.ai, which applies AI to assist people in medical diagnosis and Kaleido (India's first text to image diffusion model).

"India stands at a pivotal moment, ready to lead the next wave of AI innovation. But to truly harness this potential, businesses must double their investment in technology. Today, Indian companies spend just 2-3 per cent of their revenue on tech. This needs to increase significantly to fully capitalize on AI's promise. At Fractal, we are committed to driving this transformation by building high-quality AI products that address India's unique needs," says Srikanth Velamakanni, Co-founder, Group Chief Executive and Executive Vice Chairman of Fractal.

Recently, Fractal AI's Project Ramanujan introduced a groundbreaking reasoning system to enhance the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) by integrating deep mathematical reasoning, enabling it to tackle complex tasks such as Olympiad-level mathematics and strategic games like chess. Looking ahead, Velamakanni says Fractal plans to introduce Cogentiq, an agentic AI platform for B2B applications, and Ramanujan, an advanced AI model for reasoning and coding. Additionally, the company is developing Project Pioneer, a multi-agent AI system designed for real-world applications like software development.

Today, Fractal is making a bold bet on agentic AI. "Today, our revenues come from AI systems that power enterprise decisions, and many of these systems are now evolving to become agentic. We see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine every business process with AI, from marketing and customer service to trade finance and healthcare," says Velamakanni.

Asked what is one of the biggest challenges businesses face today, Velamakanni says it is building sustained trust in a rapidly evolving, tech-driven landscape. As AI and data become central to decision-making, clients and consumers alike are more cautious about how their data is used, how transparent the models are, and whether the solutions are genuinely adding long-term value or simply riding a hype wave.

"Overcoming this requires more than just technical excellence. It calls for a culture of responsibility, deep domain empathy and an unwavering commitment to outcomes, not just outputs," he says.

Company facts:

• Year of inception: 2000
• No. of employees: 5000+ employees across 18 global locations
• Revenue for FY 2024-25: INR 2761 crore
• External funding received so far: USD 685 million
• Major clients: Fortune 500 Companies
• Any IP developed/patented: 20+ granted globally