Meet man who shut down his AI startup despite BIG funding, even Perplexity's Aravind Srinivas backed off due to...

Supreet Hegde is an IIT-Madras alumnus who has built his career at the intersection of technology, business development, and innovation. Known for his sharp strategic thinking, he has worked across multiple countries and industries before co-founding his own AI venture. After graduating from IIT-Madras, Hegde began his professional journey with Auctus Advisors, providing strategic planning and transaction advisory services to major clients, including India’s leading airport company and a European IT giant. He later joined HyperVerge, a Silicon Valley-based deep-learning startup, where he spent over four years. During his time there, he took on leadership roles such as Vice President of Global Business Development, Sales Strategy, and ASEAN Sales, helping the company expand across Southeast Asia and improve sales operations.

In October 2023, Hegde co-founded Astra, an AI-powered sales workflow automation startup, alongside fellow IIT-Madras alumnus Ranjan Rajagopalan. The vision was ambitious, to build an “AI Chief of Staff” for account executives, automating up to 80% of their non-customer-facing tasks, such as CRM data entry, research, planning, proposals, and follow-ups. The goal was to let sales professionals focus more on closing deals rather than managing administrative work.

Astra secured pre-seed funding from Aravind Srinivas, the founder of Perplexity AI, in March 2025 and even deployed its product with two unicorn companies generating USD 100 million+ in annual revenue. However, the journey proved challenging. The company faced long sales cycles, hesitancy from enterprises to give AI access to tools like Salesforce, Slack, and Google Drive, and confusion in the fast-evolving AI agents market.

In June 2025, Supreet Hegde announced via LinkedIn that Astra would cease operations, citing internal differences with his co-founder over the pace of growth. While Ranjan Rajagopalan has reportedly begun work on a new stealth-mode venture, Hegde’s own next steps remain undisclosed. Though Astra’s chapter has closed, Hegde’s track record and experience in building high-impact tech businesses suggest his journey in the AI and enterprise space is far from over.