Prosus-backed artificial intelligence startup Deccan AI has raised $25 million in a round led by growth equity firm A91 Partners, with participation from Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and Prosus Ventures, as it doubles down on building high-accuracy AI systems for enterprises and frontier model labs, the company's founder Rukesh Reddy told ET.
For A91 Partners, which has backed companies such as Blue Tokai Coffee, Healthkart, Aye Finance and Giva, this is the first investment in an artificial intelligence startup.
“We’ve reached a tipping point where the industry is moving past the chatbot phase. Getting an agent to work in a demo is one thing; getting it to handle high-stakes business logic is another,” he said.
Reddy added that while large language models have improved rapidly, their probabilistic nature makes them inconsistent in real-world deployments, especially in enterprise settings where the cost of error is high.
The company is looking to fill this gap. Deccan started with data and model training for frontier AI labs and now has built a platform-based approach. It now combines data, reinforcement learning environments, and human expertise to improve models.
This has helped the company expand into enterprise offerings where Deccan will help enterprises deploy, evaluate, and improve AI systems end-to-end rather than just supplying training data.
"One is an evaluation suite that helps enterprises monitor whether AI models are performing reliably in production. The second is a broader enterprise platform focused on automating back-office and middle-office operations using AI agents, deployed within the client’s infrastructure with a hybrid AI-plus-human model," he said.
For enterprises, the startup has rolled out products such as 'Helix', a hybrid human-plus-automated evaluation suite, and 'EnterpriseOS', which focuses on automating back- and middle-office workflows.
Reddy said the company is primarily targeting Fortune 500 firms, with global capability centres (GCCs) serving as a key entry point.
Hiring for enterprise customers
Deccan AI is also setting up a Bengaluru office focused on enterprise business, complementing its existing presence in San Francisco and Hyderabad. The team in Bengaluru is expected to grow from a handful of employees to 20-30 over the year.
Reddy, an IIT Bombay alumnus, said so far the business was entirely focused on frontier model training six months ago. “It is now roughly 90% frontier and 10% enterprise, but the enterprise segment is expected to grow faster as AI deployment scales. This mirrors a broader industry shift from model training to inference and real-world usage.”
On what differentiates Deccan from AI SaaS or other workflow players, Reddy said its experience working with frontier AI labs, which gives it insight into how models behave and fail.
“This allows the company to deploy AI in enterprise settings with higher accuracy, especially in complex environments like legacy systems without APIs. It also positions itself as an orchestrator-combining the best available models and tools rather than building everything from scratch.”
Overall Reddy said the nature of work is also shifting on the AI front. New skills such as prompting, evaluation, and system oversight are emerging.
Kaushik Anand, partner at A91 Partners said Deccan is building the essential infrastructure for the next decade of software. “As the world moves from experimentation to execution, the need for Deccan's evaluation and monitoring layer becomes non-negotiable. They are making it safe for consumers and enterprises to actually trust AI.”
For A91 Partners, which has backed companies such as Blue Tokai Coffee, Healthkart, Aye Finance and Giva, this is the first investment in an artificial intelligence startup.
“We’ve reached a tipping point where the industry is moving past the chatbot phase. Getting an agent to work in a demo is one thing; getting it to handle high-stakes business logic is another,” he said.
Reddy added that while large language models have improved rapidly, their probabilistic nature makes them inconsistent in real-world deployments, especially in enterprise settings where the cost of error is high.
The company is looking to fill this gap. Deccan started with data and model training for frontier AI labs and now has built a platform-based approach. It now combines data, reinforcement learning environments, and human expertise to improve models.
This has helped the company expand into enterprise offerings where Deccan will help enterprises deploy, evaluate, and improve AI systems end-to-end rather than just supplying training data.
"One is an evaluation suite that helps enterprises monitor whether AI models are performing reliably in production. The second is a broader enterprise platform focused on automating back-office and middle-office operations using AI agents, deployed within the client’s infrastructure with a hybrid AI-plus-human model," he said.
For enterprises, the startup has rolled out products such as 'Helix', a hybrid human-plus-automated evaluation suite, and 'EnterpriseOS', which focuses on automating back- and middle-office workflows.
Reddy said the company is primarily targeting Fortune 500 firms, with global capability centres (GCCs) serving as a key entry point.
Hiring for enterprise customers
Deccan AI is also setting up a Bengaluru office focused on enterprise business, complementing its existing presence in San Francisco and Hyderabad. The team in Bengaluru is expected to grow from a handful of employees to 20-30 over the year.
Reddy, an IIT Bombay alumnus, said so far the business was entirely focused on frontier model training six months ago. “It is now roughly 90% frontier and 10% enterprise, but the enterprise segment is expected to grow faster as AI deployment scales. This mirrors a broader industry shift from model training to inference and real-world usage.”
On what differentiates Deccan from AI SaaS or other workflow players, Reddy said its experience working with frontier AI labs, which gives it insight into how models behave and fail.
“This allows the company to deploy AI in enterprise settings with higher accuracy, especially in complex environments like legacy systems without APIs. It also positions itself as an orchestrator-combining the best available models and tools rather than building everything from scratch.”
Overall Reddy said the nature of work is also shifting on the AI front. New skills such as prompting, evaluation, and system oversight are emerging.
Kaushik Anand, partner at A91 Partners said Deccan is building the essential infrastructure for the next decade of software. “As the world moves from experimentation to execution, the need for Deccan's evaluation and monitoring layer becomes non-negotiable. They are making it safe for consumers and enterprises to actually trust AI.”
