In the age of AI-GenAI, technological innovations are not mere tools. They fundamentally change the nature of how our world works. Take, for instance, OpenAI’s all-new ChatGPT-5, which will reportedly go beyond passively waiting for input. It will independently explore and organise tasks, carry out necessary research and get the work done for enterprises and individuals with little human interference. More importantly, it understands context even when a human doesn’t.

Many industry experts feel this comes close to artificial general intelligence (AGI), where AI acquires human-level cognitive capabilities for learning and task execution.

But even a decade ago, technology disruptors (startups, scientists and others) were struggling to develop AI-powered enterprise tools like intelligent meeting assistants to streamline workflows and boost productivity.

GPTs (generative pre-trained transformers) built on large language models (LLMs) were not used to develop chatbots in 2015. For context, LLMs are machine learning subsets where algorithms are trained on large datasets to process, analyse and generate useful content for enterprises and individuals. But in their absence a decade ago, there were no reliable, real-time voice transcriptions and certainly no AI meeting assistants that could understand contexts and accents across industries and conversations.

During the summer break of 2015, Krish Ramineni, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and working at Microsoft (he was an Indian-origin student), and Sam Udotong, studying at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), started tinkering with these ideas. What began as a vacation project turned into a side hustle. Next, it was launched as a startup called Fireflies.ai, which was funded with pocket change ($2K each from the founders).

“I was supposed to go to Cambridge. But Sam asked if I would want to work on something full-time together, and we decided to go in,” flounder-CEO Ramineni told Inc42 during an interaction.

At the time, they noticed a widening gap between what meetings produced — scattered, forgotten conversations and information nuggets — and what AI could extract from that input. This became the foundation for Fireflies.ai, a meeting assistant that could turn everyday conversations into searchable, actionable workflows.

“I was intrigued but had just one condition. I didn’t want to be in Boston,” said Ramineni. “So, I said I’d rather split time between India and San Francisco, and the rest is history.”

Launched in 2016, Fireflies.ai started in San Francisco, with its early team based in India. Within nine years, it grew into a widely adopted AI meeting assistant, which was used by 75% of Fortune 500 companies. It supports more than 20 Mn users across 500K organisations. In the past 18 months, the platform has experienced an 8x increase in user base, driven by the demand for AI tools that help manage meetings, automate tasks and retain organisational knowledge.

Fireflies.ai claims to have processed over 2 billion meeting minutes to date. The platform offers enterprise-grade security, supports private data storage, and ensures that customer meeting data is not used to train its AI models. Backed by investors like Khosla Ventures and Canaan Partners among others, Fireflies has raised $19 Mn in funding. The company operates as a remote-first team, with 120 employees spread across more than 20 countries.

In June 2025, the startup entered the unicorn club with a $1 Bn valuation, reached via its first tender offer. It is a secondary transaction in which existing shareholders can sell their equity to outside investors at a pre-determined price. In this case, no fresh capital was raised. However, the price ascertained more than $1 Bn valuation, giving its employees liquidity and signalling strong external confidence in the startup without dilution.

Fireflies.ai has been profitable since 2023, a rarity among AI startups, while sustaining triple-digit year-over-year growth without raising primary capital since 2021. Although FY25 numbers are not out yet, its revenue reached $10.9 Mn in FY24, from $5.8 Mn in the previous fiscal year, at 88.1% YoY growth.

Around 20-30% of its employees are located in India, which accounts for 10%-15% of its total revenue. The country’s revenue contribution has grown significantly over the past two years.

The startup supports 14 regional languages, including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, which are essential differentiators. Integration with CRM (customer relationship management) tools like Zoho and Freshworks has made the product more compatible with Indian workflows. In addition, mobile application support for in-person meetings, real-time notetaking and accent adaptability have further driven its........

© Inc42