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- Published on December 4, 2025
- In AI Startups
Why Smallest.ai Took a US First Approach and Not India
“I think there’s a lot more to do, and it’s still superficial in my opinion,” Apoorv Sood said.
- By Mohit Pandey
After more than a year of building independently, Smallest.ai raised $8 million in its seed round in October, led by Sierra Ventures, with participation from several other veteran investors in the industry.
The voice AI-focused startup, founded by CEO Sudarshan Kamath and his co-founder and CTO, Akshat Mandloi, started in Pune, moved to Bengaluru, and then decided to build it out of Silicon Valley.
As Indian customers were still stuck with demanding POCs for AI, Smallest.ai took the step of going to the West first, improving the models, and then started providing them for the Indian market.
Speaking to AIM, Apoorv Sood, who recently joined the company as the global GTM head, said that the uncomfortable truth for Indian founders building AI startups is that they have to go
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Mohit Pandey
Mohit writes about AI in simple, explainable, and often funny words. He's especially passionate about chatting with those building AI for Bharat, with the occasional detour into AGI.
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