Mumbai Teen Ditches IIT Dream, Raises $2.6 Million for AI Startup

Mumbai, October 7, 2025 Dhravya Shah, a 19-year-old from Mumbai, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding for his artificial intelligence startup, Supermemory. Coming from a middle-class family, Shah initially prepared for the IIT entrance exams but later decided to pursue his passion for technology and AI, moving to the United States to study at Arizona State University before dropping out to focus full-time on his startup. Shah began exploring technology as a teenager, creating consumer-focused bots and apps. He gained early recognition after building a bot that converted tweets into visually appealing screenshots and sold it to Hypefury, a social media tool. Using the earnings from that sale, he moved to the US to continue his studies and further develop his technical skills. During the pandemic, Shah shared in a YouTube video how he convinced his parents to buy him a laptop, despite their initial hesitation due to financial constraints. With that laptop, he taught himself to code and built the foundation for his future entrepreneurial ventures. His determination and self-learning laid the groundwork for what would eventually become Supermemory. Supermemory, initially called Any Context, started as a project Shah worked on while challenging himself to create something new every week. Its first version allowed users to chat with their Twitter bookmarks. Over time, the tool evolved into a more sophisticated system that extracts “memories” or insights from unstructured data, including documents, chats, projects, and emails. This allows AI applications to understand context and retain knowledge, effectively giving machines the ability to “remember” past interactions and information. The startup’s technology is designed to work across multiple types of data, making it suitable for a wide range of AI applications, from email clients to video editing tools. According to Shah, the core strength of Supermemory lies in extracting insights from any kind of unstructured data and providing apps with a better understanding of users’ needs. The recent $2.6 million seed funding round was led by Susa Ventures, Browder Capital, and SF1.vc. It also attracted individual investors, including Google AI chief Jeff Dean, DeepMind product manager Logan Kilpatrick, Cloudflare executive Knecht, and Sentry founder David Cramer. This investment is expected to help Shah expand Supermemory’s capabilities and reach in the AI industry. Currently, Shah resides in San Francisco on an O-1 visa and is fully focused on growing his startup. His journey from a middle-class teenager in Mumbai to an internationally funded AI entrepreneur showcases his determination, innovative thinking, and the potential of young talent in the technology sector. Shah’s story is an inspiring example of following passion over conventional paths, demonstrating how talent, persistence, and self-learning can open doors to global opportunities. With Supermemory, he aims to make AI smarter, more context-aware, and capable of learning from past data to serve users more effectively across applications and industries. Mumbai Teen Raises $2.6 Million for AI Startup Dhravya Shah, a 19-year-old from Mumbai, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding for his AI startup, Supermemory, which helps AI applications remember and use past information. Originally preparing for IIT, Shah moved to the US to study at Arizona State University but dropped out to focus on his startup. He began coding as a teenager, selling an early bot to Hypefury, which funded his move abroad. Supermemory now extracts insights from unstructured data like emails, documents, and chats, making AI smarter. Investors include Google AI chief Jeff Dean, DeepMind, and executives from OpenAI and Meta.