AI Venture Astra, supported by CEO Perplexity Aravind Srinivas, ceases operations; founder reveals, "we stumbled upon..."
In a surprising turn of events, Astra, an AI startup based in Bengaluru, has announced its closure. Founded in 2023 by IIT Madras alumni Supreet Hegde and Ranjan Rajagopalan, the startup aimed to revolutionise the business landscape by automating 80% of an account executive's workload.
However, Astra faced numerous challenges in gaining traction and establishing itself as a category-defining product. The startup's core offering required deep integrations into corporate data stacks, a process that often proved too intrusive or slow-moving for prospective clients. This, coupled with concerns about sharing sensitive data with a nascent platform, led to resistance from large enterprises in winning client trust.
Despite positioning itself as an AI-powered tool for account executives, Astra remained confined to a limited pilot rollout and struggled to scale beyond its beta phase. The proliferation of similar agentic tools only compounded the hesitation, as differentiation across startups remained unclear in a crowded field. Buyers were often uncertain "of whom to trust or how to evaluate these AI agents."
Astra integrated with enterprise systems like Salesforce, Google Drive, Slack, and contract lifecycle management tools, but working with larger companies meant navigating lengthy sales cycles. Despite raising capital from Aravind Srinivas, another IIT Madras graduate and co-founder of AI startup Perplexity AI, Astra did not achieve sustainable traction.
In a LinkedIn post, Hegde announced the closure of Astra, citing internal differences between the founding team as the primary reason. Rajagopalan, the former Google employee and co-founder of Astra, is reportedly working on a new venture called Genesis Robotics, still in stealth mode.
Astra onboarded only two enterprise clients before winding down. The closure of the startup marks a setback for the AI industry, but the lessons learned from Astra's journey may provide valuable insights for future startups navigating the complex landscape of corporate data integration and AI adoption.
Hegde's future plans remain undisclosed, but with the wealth of experience gained from founding and leading Astra, it is likely that he will continue to make significant contributions to the tech industry. Rajagopalan's new venture, Genesis Robotics, promises to be an exciting development to watch in the world of AI and robotics.
