Hyderabad-based venture capital fund haf.vc has invested ₹3 crore in Hunar.AI, a conversational artificial intelligence startup focused on frontline workforce management. The investment will support AI infrastructure, product development, sales and market expansion as the company scales its multilingual hiring and workforce management solutions.
haf.vc, a SEBI-registered Category I Venture Capital Fund built on the decade-long legacy of Hyderabad Angels, has invested ₹3 crore in Hunar.AI as part of its strategy to back businesses with scalable models, differentiated technology and the potential to address large market opportunities.
Founded in 2022 by Krishna Khandelwal and Shantanu Bhattacharyya, Hunar.AI develops conversational AI agents that help enterprises hire, onboard, train and engage frontline workers through voice and WhatsApp across multiple languages.
The fresh capital will be deployed towards strengthening the company’s AI infrastructure, advancing product development and expanding its sales and market presence. Hunar.AI aims to serve businesses that need to recruit and manage large frontline workforces across multiple locations and languages.
The investment also reflects haf.vc’s continued focus on supporting startups at critical stages of growth through capital, strategic guidance and access to its network of entrepreneurs, industry experts and investors.
haf.vc Backs AI-Powered Frontline Workforce Solutions
Commenting on the investment, Kalyan Sivalenka, Managing Partner at haf.vc, highlighted the significant opportunity to address technology gaps in India’s frontline workforce ecosystem.
“India’s frontline workforce is huge, multilingual and largely underserved by technology. Hunar.AI understands this problem from the ground up. Its team began in workforce services and turned that experience into AI that works in the languages and workflows of the people it serves,” Sivalenka said.
He added that the company’s domain expertise and understanding of frontline workforce requirements align with the qualities haf.vc looks for when backing businesses at the Series A stage. He also noted that investing alongside Blume Ventures and a broader syndicate reflects the fund’s approach of supporting promising founders across India.
Hunar.AI Targets Growing Demand for Multilingual Recruitment Technology
Hunar.AI focuses on automating key stages of frontline workforce management, including recruitment, onboarding, training and employee engagement. Its conversational AI technology uses voice and WhatsApp to help businesses interact with workers across languages and geographies.
The company’s solutions target industries where hiring volumes are high and workforce operations are distributed across multiple locations. These include logistics, retail and services, where businesses often face challenges in recruiting and managing frontline employees at scale.
Krishna Khandelwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Hunar.AI, said the investment would strengthen the company’s ability to expand in Hyderabad and Telangana, where logistics, retail and services businesses are generating demand for frontline hiring solutions.
“Hyderabad is one of the fastest-growing hubs for logistics, retail and services hiring, and that is exactly where frontline workforce problems are most acute. Having haf.vc on board strengthens our reach in this market as we take our multilingual conversational AI to more enterprises in Telangana,” Khandelwal said.
haf.vc Continues Its Pan-India Investment Strategy
The investment in Hunar.AI forms part of haf.vc’s broader approach to identifying opportunities across India’s startup ecosystem. While the fund remains rooted in Hyderabad’s entrepreneurial network, it follows a pan-India investment strategy and collaborates with venture capital firms and co-investors to support companies across sectors and geographies.
Building on the legacy of Hyderabad Angels, haf.vc combines the agility of angel investing with the structure of venture capital. The fund works with founders through financial backing, strategic mentorship and access to industry networks to help businesses navigate growth and expansion.
With its investment in Hunar.AI, haf.vc is backing the development of AI-powered solutions for a large and underserved workforce segment, as enterprises increasingly explore automation to improve recruitment and workforce management.
About haf.vc
haf.vc is a SEBI-registered Category I Venture Capital Fund established to extend the decade-long legacy of the Hyderabad Angels Network, an active angel investor community in India. The fund combines investment experience, entrepreneurial networks and venture capital structures to support promising early-stage companies across India.
