How upliance.ai Is Getting More Indians to Cook at Home
upliance.ai is a Bengaluru-based smart kitchen startup building AI-powered cooking devices that guide users through real, home-cooked meals without requiring cooking skills or constant supervision.
Sector
Household goodsLocation
BengaluruInvestment Year
2022Investment Status
Active

Brand Story
Founded in 2021 by IIT-Bombay alumni Mahek Mody and Mohit Sharma, upliance.ai makes AI-powered devices that can cook over 750 dishes across 34 cuisines without any supervision. The device chops, sautés, stirs, weighs ingredients, and guides users step-by-step through complete meals. The startup has crossed INR 6 Cr in topline in FY25, has logged over 6 lakh meals cooked, and recently launched upliance 2.0, which delivers 40% faster cooking, macro tracking, diet-friendly recipe variants, and smarter motor control. The most recent launch is an air fryer. The brand has raised INR 41 Cr from Rukam Capital, Khosla Ventures, Draper Associates, Rainmatter Fund, and Stanford Angels, among others.
Origin
Mahek Mody and Mohit Sharma, both IIT-Bombay graduates, founded upliance.ai in 2021 around a single observation: cooking at home had become a casualty of urban life. Working professionals wanted real home-cooked food but lacked the time or confidence to make it consistently. Their answer was a device that removes the guesswork entirely. Choose a meal, follow the on-screen instructions, add ingredients, and the food is ready, no prior skill required.
The first version worked but had gaps. Indian cooking runs hot, oily, and unpredictable, and users felt disconnected from the process. The founders took this feedback and rebuilt both hardware and software. upliance 2.0 introduced a glass lid for visibility, a Virtual Flame heat indicator that mirrors the low, medium, and high flame settings every Indian cook understands, and a reengineered system that reaches 160 degrees Celsius for proper browning. The software learns from real usage patterns across its user base and adds two new recipes every Friday based on community demand.
How we helped
Rukam Capital backed upliance.ai from the pre-launch phase in 2022 and has stayed closely involved across product feedback, market strategy, and capital allocation as the brand has grown.
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