IIT Bombay alumni’s startup raises Rs 5 crore to build AI mentors for NEET aspirants

Lytmus AI, a Bengaluru-based edtech startup building AI mentors for competitive exam preparation, has raised Rs 5 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by Boundless Ventures, an early-stage fund backing AI-native companies.

The startup will use the capital to strengthen its AI capabilities, accelerate product development, and expand student acquisition, with an initial focus on the NEET segment.

Founded in 2024 by IIT Bombay batchmates Ajit Kumar and Praveen, Lytmus AI has developed an online platform built on two layers. According to the startup, its infrastructure layer is trained on the teaching patterns of subject experts to enable its AI mentors to explain concepts in a teacher-like manner. The application layer is designed to maintain context for each student, including their learning progress, recurring mistakes and pace through different topics.

The startup said this architecture enables its AI mentors to answer questions, identify recurring learning gaps and recommend subsequent learning steps based on an individual student's learning history, rather than relying on standardised responses.

"In the last decade, edtech solved access to content. But it traded student-teacher interaction for scale, and exam outcomes did not follow. Students prepare alone, with no one to guide their next step. We built Lytmus to close that gap, not with more content, but with mentorship that knows each student and can actually get them to results. No student should have to prepare alone," said Ajit Kumar, who is also the CEO of Lytmus AI.

Ajit is a second-time entrepreneur and IIT Bombay alumnus with experience across product management, consulting, and startup operations. He previously built ventures in the agri-tech sector and led product initiatives across consumer and healthcare technology platforms.

Co-founder and CTO Praveen brings over 10 years of experience in AI and machine learning and is also a second-time entrepreneur, having previously built ventures in the foodtech sector. Prior to Lytmus AI, he served as Staff Data Scientist at Simpl, where he led the data science team.