CurvetAI raises Rs 6 crore in pre-seed funding led by Merak Ventures

What happened

Pune-based AI workspace startup CurvetAI has raised Rs 6 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm Merak Ventures. Unnamed angel investors also participated in the round.

The startup plans to use the fresh capital to build out its technology infrastructure, hire new staff, and develop "AI agents" capable of executing multi-step workflows for its users.

How the platform works

Founded by Vivek Dubey and Utkarsh Gupta, CurvetAI aims to solve a growing problem in the generative AI market: fragmentation. Rather than forcing users to log into separate applications for text, image, audio, and video generation, the startup provides a single workspace that integrates multiple AI models.

On the platform, users can run different models side-by-side to compare their outputs, and then combine those outputs into a single project.

Vivek Dubey, co-founder and chief executive of CurvetAI, believes the current user experience for generative AI is too complicated. "The user is still expected to understand which model is best for a particular task and then figure out how to make different tools work together," Dubey said. "We believe that complexity should sit with the platform."

The company did not start with this multi-model workspace. It initially launched as a directory for discovering AI tools and prompts. However, the founders pivoted the business after realising users wanted a unified space where they could actually run and combine those tools without jumping between separate products.

Growth and partnerships

CurvetAI claims to have built a user base of more than 100,000 monthly active users worldwide, with India and the United States representing its two largest markets. Its platform is currently used by individual creators, professional teams, and educational organisations.

While the startup has started generating revenue, it has not disclosed its financial metrics, the number of paying customers, or its valuation following this funding round.

In addition to serving end-users, CurvetAI acts as a distribution channel for AI model developers, allowing them to showcase their models and collect direct feedback from users. The company has already established collaborations with technology firms including Alibaba, GnaniAI, and Rumik AI, though it has not shared the commercial terms of these agreements.

Sheetal Bahl, founding partner at Merak Ventures, said the firm’s decision to back the startup came down to the founders’ execution. Bahl pointed to "the founders' ability to translate that insight into a product people were already using at scale, and to keep evolving it as the market moved."