Voice-first CRM startup outperforms 100+ global AI and B2B SaaS companies at Austin’s premier pitch event
Mumbai, April 24, 2026 – Otto Sales AI, the world’s first AI Chief of Staff for Sales, has emerged as the winner of the SaaStock USA 2026 Global Pitch Competition, securing a $500,000 investment from a syndicate of leading venture capital firms, including Backfuture VC, Quadri Ventures, BAG Collective, and OneSixOne Ventures.
Held at the Palmer Events Center, the competition is regarded as one of the largest B2B SaaS pitch platforms in the United States. Otto’s win stands out among more than 100 competing AI and SaaS startups, marking a significant milestone for the young company and its Mumbai-born founder.
Founded in 2026 by Mumbai-born entrepreneur Omkar Pandharkame, Otto is the result of nearly 15 years of hands-on experience in B2B SaaS sales and entrepreneurship. The platform reflects a deep understanding of the inefficiencies in traditional CRM workflows and is designed to replace them with a more intuitive, automated, and intelligence-driven approach.
Otto is introducing a fundamentally new way for sales teams to operate. Designed as a voice-first, self-driving CRM, the platform eliminates the need for traditional dashboards and manual data entry. Instead, it proactively calls sales representatives each morning with a personalized briefing on their pipeline, priorities, and follow-ups.
Behind the scenes, Otto’s AI continuously processes emails, calendar activity, CRM inputs, market signals, and competitive intelligence to build a dynamic, ever-evolving “living memory” of each sales pipeline.
This marks a shift from conventional CRM systems to what the company defines as a new category, self-driving sales intelligence, a compounding intelligence layer that improves with every interaction rather than relying on static, manually updated data.
Otto’s winning pitch featured a live demonstration that captured the attention of judges and attendees alike. During the presentation, the product called its own founder in real time, delivered a contextual pipeline update, and went on to engage directly with the judges, sending personalized insights to their inboxes within minutes.
The demonstration underscored the product’s core philosophy: not just showcasing capabilities, but allowing the technology to perform autonomously in real-world scenarios.
Commenting on this, Omkar Pandharkame, Founder & CEO, said, “We’re a Mumbai-born, US-incorporated company building for the global sales workforce. Winning at Austin was proof that the best sales tech ideas can come from anywhere. The future of sales is voice-first, self-driving intelligence.”
Tanay Lakhani, Chief Product Officer, said, “We learn to speak before we learn to read. We were born with sound as the first medium, yet every piece of enterprise software was built assuming the opposite. So we kept asking ourselves a simple question: if we were building a CRM from scratch in 2026, would it really be a dashboard? The answer was no. It would be something that talks to you, remembers everything, and quietly keeps itself up to date. That’s Otto.”
Alen Rafagudinov, Chief Technology Officer, said, “The sales intelligence layer is the missing piece between the CRM and the work that actually happens. Otto stitches email, calendar, meetings, and CRM activity into a single living graph that updates itself every night. You know the layer is alive because it calls you in the morning with the three decisions waiting on your pipeline, and commits the change the moment you say ‘send it.’ The sales intelligence layer updates itself while the rep keeps selling.”
Launched in early access just three weeks ago, Otto already has 45 early adopters onboarding to paid plans this quarter, signaling strong market interest in its differentiated approach. Positioned as an alternative to legacy CRM systems, the platform aims to redefine how sales teams interact with data, workflows, and decision-making processes.
About Otto
Otto is the world’s first AI Chief of Staff for Sales, a voice-first, self-driving CRM built for modern B2B sales teams. By replacing dashboards and manual inputs with a continuously learning intelligence layer, Otto is transforming how sales organizations operate and scale. The company is incorporated as a Delaware C-corporation with a globally distributed team and is the winner of the SaaStock USA 2026 Global Pitch Competition.
