Deccan AI
Deccan AI is a Mountain View-based AI performance optimization company that works with enterprises like Google and Snowflake to improve model accuracy through research-grade evaluations and datasets. The company has 530 employees and raised $25M in Series A funding in March 2026.
The growth story
Deccan AI grew from 4 to 530 employees between 2023 and 2026, raising $25M along the way, most recently a Series A in March 2026.
About
Deccan AI provides mid-and post-training AI optimization solutions across domains including coding, multimodal systems, and robotics. Its platforms like STARK and Helix enable large-scale AI agent evaluation and deployment in enterprise workflows.
The company has scaled to 530 employees since its 2024 founding, backed by $25M in Series A funding from investors including A91 Partners and Prosus Ventures. Its workforce draws heavily from engineering talent pools, with 47% of staff in engineering roles.
Founders and leadership
Engineering is the largest function at Deccan AI, accounting for 47% of its 530-person workforce. The company operates with a relatively young team, given its 2024 founding and median tenure of just one year.
The Deccan AI org chart
Rukesh Reddy (Founder and CEO) leads 60 mapped leaders with 14 direct reports. Click +N to expand a team; names link to the person’s public profile.
Departments, and which ones grew
Headcount by function: Operations 107 (+328% YoY), Education 88 (+38% YoY), Engineering 80 (+135% YoY), Information Technology 50 (+85% YoY), Program and Project Management 38 (+81% YoY), Human Resources 21 (+75% YoY).
Talent flow
Deccan AI recruits heavily from Turing, Amazon, and Soul AI, with 15, 12, and 8 hires respectively. Alumni frequently move to Amazon, Aerchain, and Humyn Labs. The workforce is primarily educated at Indian technical institutes like SRM IST Chennai and IIT Bombay.
Most common previous employers of Deccan AI staff: Turing (15), Amazon (12), Soul AI (8), Outlier (5), Head Digital Works (5), Chegg India (4). Former Deccan AI employees most often moved to Amazon (3), Aerchain (2), Humyn Labs (2), Pareto AI (2), Proximal (2), Arctic Engines (2).
Alumni worth knowing
The Deccan AI mafia
Four Deccan AI alumni have founded companies, including Lakshya Smartguard and Zame AI. These startups employ between 1-5 staff members each.
4Lokesh Popuri, was Multimodel Evaluation Expert until 2026Venkatesh Raju, was Founding Member until 2025H V S Advaith, was ML Ops Consultant – R&D until 2025vikram kotagiri, was AI Robotics Evaluation Specialist until 2026Hiring now
Web traffic
Traffic mix: 39% direct, 52% search, 3% social, 0% paid.
What this company is made of
Most common skills at Deccan AI: Python (Programming Language) (276), Communication (187), SQL (179), Problem Solving (156), Artificial Intelligence (AI) (156), Machine Learning (155), Data Analysis (146), Microsoft Excel (142).
Where the team actually sits
Deccan AI people are concentrated in Telangana, India (116), Karnataka, India (16), India (15), Delhi, India (11).
Search footprint
Deccan AI attracts about 9 organic search visits a month. It gained 8 ranking keywords and lost 2 in the last period.
What employees say
- Compensation
- 3.10 / 5
- Career opportunities
- 3.60 / 5
- Senior management
- 3.10 / 5
- Work-life balance
- 2.80 / 5
Frequently asked
Deccan AI has 530 employees as of September 2026.
Deccan AI has raised $25M in total, most recently a Series A round in March 2026.
Deccan AI was founded in 2024 by Atulya Pattamatta, Rukesh Reddy, Sparsh Ganjoo, Darshan Teerth.
Rukesh Reddy (Founder and CEO) sits at the top of Deccan AI's reporting structure, with 14 direct reports.
The most common previous employers of current Deccan AI staff are Turing (15 people), Amazon (12 people), Soul AI (8 people).
Former Deccan AI employees most often move to Amazon (3), Aerchain (2), Humyn Labs (2).
At least 4 companies have a founder who previously worked at Deccan AI, including Lakshya Smartguard, Zame AI, TheMindOverMarket.
Deccan AI attracts about 9 organic search visits a month.
The most common skills among Deccan AI staff are Python (Programming Language), Communication, SQL, Problem Solving, Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Deccan AI staff are concentrated in Telangana, India (116), Karnataka, India (16), India (15).
Deccan AI has about 107 people in Operations, up 328% over the past year, as of September 2026.
Deccan AI has about 88 people in Education, up 38% over the past year, as of September 2026.
Computed from 234 current and 163 former Deccan AI profiles, as of September 2026. Source: Crustdata.
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