Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg to Invest in Bengaluru AI Startup Simplismart

Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg is set to make a significant investment in the Bengaluru-based generative AI startup Simplismart, according to a report by Entrackr.

Sandberg, known for her influential role in the tech industry, is participating in a $7 million funding round for the startup, which is being led by Accel.

Simplismart, founded by BITS Pilani alumni Amritanshu Jain and Devansh Ghatak, offers a high-speed inference engine designed to help customers deploy generative AI models efficiently across various cloud providers. 

The company has previously received backing from Titan Capital, Shastra VC, and First Cheque in earlier funding rounds. Some of its prominent customers include Vodex, Dubverse, and Mobavenue.

Before founding Simplismart, Jain held machine learning engineering positions at Oracle and Capillary Technologies. Ghatak, meanwhile, gained experience in engineering roles at Avaamo and Google. Before this investment, Sandberg's only known involvement with the Indian startup ecosystem was as a client of Iconiq Capital, a U.S.-based investment management firm that has backed companies like Flipkart.

Despite reports suggesting Sandberg's involvement, Simplismart's co-founder Jain stated in another report that she is not participating in the current funding round.

Sandberg's investment history in India includes another generative AI startup, Ema, which focuses on enhancing productivity by automating complex workflows.

The increasing interest in Indian AI startups from Silicon Valley investors is notable, with Simplismart being among several companies attracting significant attention. 

Bengaluru-based startup Sarvam AI recently introduced a suite of business-to-business products powered by its generative AI models. The company has secured investments from major firms, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners, and Khosla Ventures—one of the early backers of OpenAI. Last December, Sarvam AI completed a $41 million funding round.

This development follows a recent $52 million funding round by Fireworks AI, another generative AI startup in Sandberg's portfolio, which was led by Sequoia Capital with participation from NVIDIA, AMD, and MongoDB Ventures.

Investors have observed that generative AI startups, particularly in seed and series-A rounds, are raising funds at high revenue multiples, making them some of the most expensive deals in the venture capital landscape.