Madhav Krishna, founder and CEO of Vahan.ai, will be attending the NDTV Ind.AI Summit 2026 in Delhi. He is the brain behind India's highest-volume blue-collar recruitment platform, placing over 40,000 workers every month.
A Columbia-trained AI researcher, Krishna started with English-teaching chatbots before turning to the recruitment sector. His journey reportedly began in 2014, inspired by a moment of empathy while feeding a hungry child in Delhi.
Vahan.ai's breakthrough came by embracing local recruitment agencies.
Today, Vahan works with a network of over 2,000 agencies to fulfil high-volume hiring mandates from companies like Swiggy, Zomato, and Dunzo. This model enables outcome-based payments and ensures trust is preserved at scale.
Vahan is the only platform in India to operate at this magnitude.
In 2024, Vahan integrated voice AI using GPT-4o, Whisper, Deepgram, and ElevenLabs to enhance recruiter productivity and predict retention.
Hundreds of thousands of hours of recruiter-candidate calls fine-tune the AI for Indian accents and conversational nuances.
Who Is Madhav Krishna?
He holds a B.Tech degree from Netaji Subhas University of Technology in Delhi and went on to earn a Master's in Computer Science (AI) from Columbia University in the US.
He began his career in the US, working with startups like Jetsetter and NextJump before returning to India.
In 2016, he founded Vahan.ai, initially using WhatsApp bots for worker engagement and later integrating advanced AI, including voice-enabled recruiters, to streamline hiring.
Under his leadership, Vahan.ai places lakhs of workers monthly across delivery, quick commerce, retail, and manufacturing sectors, and has raised funding from investors such as Khosla Ventures and Y Combinator.
About Vahan.ai
Vahan.ai is India's largest AI-powered platform for blue-collar and gig workers. Founded in 2016, it connects workers every month with employers in delivery, retail, manufacturing, and logistics.
Instead of replacing local recruitment agencies, Vahan.ai works with them, using AI tools (voice-enabled recruiters and smart screening) to make hiring faster and more reliable. The platform helps predict worker retention, improves recruiter productivity, and supports compliance and upskilling. It is backed by investors like Khosla Ventures and Y Combinator.
