Kluisz rebrands as Nava, raises $21.7 million to build AI neocloud platform
₹180 crore, in a Series A funding round led by Greenoaks Capital, as investors bet on rising demand for artificial-intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure. Existing investors RTP Global and Unicorn India Ventures also participated.“Our larger ambitions entails now building a full stack new cloud platform,” said Abhinav Sinha, co-founder and chief executive at Nava (formerly Kluisz.ai), in an interview with Mint.
“We are now going to build AI data centres and GPU compute.”The fundraising and rebranding mark a broader pivot for the company, from offering private cloud services for enterprises to positioning itself as a “neocloud” platform that provides GPU-based infrastructure for artificial intelligence workloads.A crop of such providers is emerging in India as demand for AI computing capacity rises. Companies such as Nava, Neevcloud, NxtGen, E2E Networks and data-centre provider Yotta Data Services are competing for business in what remains a relatively new segment.
They also face competition from global players such as Nasdaq-listed CoreWeave and Lambda.The round marks the startup’s second capital raise, coming just eight months after its $9.6 million seed round in July last year, which the company said was the largest seed round for an AI company at the time.Neocloud platforms typically provide GPU-as-a-service infrastructure designed for artificial intelligence inference, machine learning and other compute-intensive workloads.Nava’s fundraising also reflects how venture capital investors in India are approaching the AI opportunity. While AI applications and wrappers drew significant investor interest last year, investors are increasingly looking for defensible business models and intellectual property that are less
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