Venkatesh Raju profile photo 1 on Tal

Venkatesh Raju

Building Zame AI || ex Deccan AI, Cashfree Payments || NITC

Bengaluru

7+ years of work experience

Zame AI
Jul 20251 yr 3 mosPresent

Meet Zara — our always-on AI recruiter, built to fix what’s broken in modern hiring. Traditional recruiting takes too much time and misses too much talent. Recruiters often spend over 13 hours sourcing for just one role and most of their day on screening calls — yet most candidates still turn out to be a poor fit. Meanwhile, great people never even get a chance because there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Zara changes that: 1. Sources intelligently across resumes, job boards, LinkedIn, GitHub, and niche communities — building a curated talent network of over a million candidates (and growing). 2. Screens candidates objectively and without bias through data-driven evaluation of skills, experience, and qualifications to deliver highly accurate matches. 3. Communicates with candidates personally and at scale via email, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn 4. Delivers real-time analytics and hiring insights that help shorten time-to-fill, improve quality of hire, and optimise every step of the process. 5. Integrates seamlessly with all major recruitment tools and ATS systems for effortless setup and adoption. Developed in collaboration with leading researchers at Swansea, Zara blends deep academic expertise with cutting-edge AI innovation. Empowering recruiters to focus less on repetitive tasks and more on what really matters: building relationships, assessing culture fit, and making great hires.
Zame AI
Apr 20254 mosJul 2025

Built AI agents for sales, recruitment & support
Career Break
Jan 20253 mosMar 2025

Into the mountatins
Deccan AI
Nov 20231 yr 4 mosFeb 2025

On-site

Technical founder/CTO. Built tech outta thin air. Grew n Scaled verticals across tech & product. Soul AI -> Deccan AI
Cashfree Payments
Apr 20212 yrs 8 mosNov 2023

Bengaluru Area, India

Cashfree Payments
Jun 20191 yr 11 mosApr 2021

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Cashfree - Payment Gateway and Bank Transfer APIs
May 20183 mosJul 2018

Bengaluru Area, India

Venkatesh’s AI Stack

claude code
claude code
claude
claude
cursor
cursor
elevenlabs
elevenlabs
langchain
langchain
RunPod
RunPod

Education

National institute of technology Calicut

Computer Science and Engineering

National institute of technology Calicut

20154 yrs2019
Y Combinator

Startup School Live

Y Combinator

20252025

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Headline

Building Zame AI || ex Deccan AI, Cashfree Payments || NITC

About

As an Engineering Leader, I take the charge from day one, wearing diverse hats — from CTO to Product Manager, Engineering Lead to DevOps, focussing on scaling both the product and the team. I build the product, scale the team and make critical decisions to drive business success. Passionate about innovation, I actively recruit top talent, network at industry summits, and constantly seek ways to push the boundaries of what we could achieve. With 7+ years of experience in full-stack development, AI, Machine Learning, microservices, and infrastructure, I’ve honed my ability to lead cross-functional teams, build scalable solutions, and mentor the next generation of tech leaders. I’m driven by the challenge of turning ideas into impactful products and am always looking for opportunities to grow, lead, and innovate.

Location

Bengaluru

AI stack

claude code

claude

cursor

elevenlabs

langchain

RunPod

Work experience

Founder & CEO at Zame AI, Jul 2025 - Present · 1 yr 3 mos, Meet Zara — our always-on AI recruiter, built to fix what’s broken in modern hiring. Traditional recruiting takes too much time and misses too much talent. Recruiters often spend over 13 hours sourcing for just one role and most of their day on screening calls — yet most candidates still turn out to be a poor fit. Meanwhile, great people never even get a chance because there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Zara changes that: 1. Sources intelligently across resumes, job boards, LinkedIn, GitHub, and niche communities — building a curated talent network of over a million candidates (and growing). 2. Screens candidates objectively and without bias through data-driven evaluation of skills, experience, and qualifications to deliver highly accurate matches. 3. Communicates with candidates personally and at scale via email, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn 4. Delivers real-time analytics and hiring insights that help shorten time-to-fill, improve quality of hire, and optimise every step of the process. 5. Integrates seamlessly with all major recruitment tools and ATS systems for effortless setup and adoption. Developed in collaboration with leading researchers at Swansea, Zara blends deep academic expertise with cutting-edge AI innovation. Empowering recruiters to focus less on repetitive tasks and more on what really matters: building relationships, assessing culture fit, and making great hires.

Engineer at Zame AI, Apr 2025 - Jul 2025 · 4 mos, Built AI agents for sales, recruitment & support

Travel at Career Break, Jan 2025 - Mar 2025 · 3 mos, Into the mountatins

Founding Member at Deccan AI, Nov 2023 - Feb 2025 · 1 yr 4 mos, On-site, Technical founder/CTO. Built tech outta thin air. Grew n Scaled verticals across tech & product. Soul AI -> Deccan AI

Senior Software Development Engineer at Cashfree Payments, Apr 2021 - Nov 2023 · 2 yrs 8 mos, Bengaluru Area, India

Product Engineer at Cashfree Payments, Jun 2019 - Apr 2021 · 1 yr 11 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Software Development Intern at Cashfree - Payment Gateway and Bank Transfer APIs, May 2018 - Jul 2018 · 3 mos, Bengaluru Area, India

Education

Computer Science and Engineering, National institute of technology Calicut

Startup School Live, Y Combinator