Dhananjay Yadav, early Razorpay team member and founding member of Livspace and Homelane, and Aryan Yadav, IIT Madras engineer who developed AI architecture for brain tumour recognition, founded NeoSapien in January 2024. Their Neo 1 pendant, India's first AI-native wearable, secured ₹80 lakh from Namita Thapar on Shark Tank India Season 4, raised $2.09 million total, deployed 15,000 devices, and is building the OS layer for all future AI wearables.
Razorpay, IIT Madras, and Two Brothers Who Decided to Build the Second Brain
- NeoSapien was founded in January 2024 in Bengaluru by brothers Dhananjay Yadav and Aryan Yadav. Between them, they brought the precise combination of skills that a company attempting to pioneer a new computing category required.
- Dhananjay was part of the early team at Razorpay, one of India's most celebrated fintech startups, where he developed deep expertise in customer acquisition and product growth. He was also a founding member of Livspace and Homelane, two of India's most recognised home tech platforms, giving him rare experience across multiple company-building cycles at early and growth stages.
- Aryan studied engineering at IIT Madras, one of India's most selective engineering institutions, and developed a new AI architecture for brain tumour recognition, demonstrating the depth of machine learning expertise he brought to NeoSapien's product team.
- The problem they set out to solve was universal and deeply human. People deal with constant meetings, digital overload, scattered thoughts, and endless decisions. The most important context of a professional's day, the commitments made, the names mentioned, the tasks assigned, was being lost to the limitations of human memory and fragmented productivity tools.
- Their answer was Neo 1, India's first AI-native wearable pendant, and the proprietary Second Brain OS that powers it.
Second Brain OS, NeoCore SDK, and a Platform Beyond a Single Device
- The boldest architectural decision NeoSapien made was to build not just a product but a platform.
- Neo 1 operates on a proprietary platform called Second Brain OS, designed to provide real-time conversation tracking, emotional insights, task organisation, and limitless memory storage. The intelligence layer is built on a proprietary knowledge graph algorithm that connects conversations over time. If a user meets someone multiple times, the system tracks prior discussions, identifies pending tasks, and generates contextual outputs such as pre-read documents, draft emails, or calendar blocks.
- Raw audio is discarded after transcription, dramatically reducing storage requirements. Even years of transcribed data occupies significantly less digital space than recorded files. The system uses voice fingerprinting to ensure only authorised individuals can access stored data, and the startup is working toward SOC2 certification. Neo 1 supports 100-plus languages, making it one of the most linguistically inclusive AI devices launched in India.
- The broader mission extends well beyond a single wearable. NeoSapien's vision is to develop the foundational operating system layer for all AI assistant devices including smart glasses, pendants, watches, and rings. Its NeoCore SDK will open pathways for businesses to build applications atop its core intelligence framework, transforming NeoSapien from a hardware company into the infrastructure layer for the next generation of AI wearables.
- Neo 1 is priced at ₹11,999 in India, available in Black, Gunmetal, Copper, and Silver, and ships in one to two business days. Strategic partnerships including the Google AI Academy, Panasonic Ignition Program, and Deepgram Startup Program reinforce the platform's global ambitions.
The Shark Tank Moment and the Funding Journey
- NeoSapien appeared on Shark Tank India Season 4 Episode 6. Dhananjay and Aryan entered seeking ₹80 lakh for 2.5% equity at a ₹32 crore valuation. Namita Thapar invested ₹80 lakh for 4% equity, with the deal carrying a condition that the company would begin working on the mental health applications of its technology. After the pitch, Anupam Mittal also shared that he holds 5% equity in the company, confirming additional Shark-level conviction in the vision.
- On December 11, 2025, NeoSapien raised a $2 million seed round led by Merak Ventures, with participation from Pixxel founder Awais Ahmed, Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal, boAt co-founder Sameer Mehta, Emcure Pharmaceuticals Executive Director Namita Thapar, and Koo CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna. Total funding raised stands at $2.09 million across two rounds from nine investors.
- "NeoSapien is fundamentally changing how we interact with technology. By creating a wearable that's not just reactive but learns and adapts to you, they're pioneering a new category of AI companions," Sameer Mehta said.
Scale and Real-World Impact
NeoSapien recorded annual revenue of ₹6.2 lakh for FY25 as of March 31, 2025, reflecting its early commercial stage at the time of reporting. The brand has partnered with over 20 B2B enterprises and deployed 15,000 devices in corporate settings. The company operates with 13 active team members, drawing inspiration from AI-native companies like Lovable and Cursor maker Anysphere that achieved major milestones with lean teams. Neo 2, an upgraded version with advanced agentic use cases, is in development. The global AI wearables market is valued at $1.8 billion and growing at 31.2% annually, projected to reach $12 billion by 2030. NeoSapien made national headlines at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 when products were allegedly stolen from its booth during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the venue. UAE and US market entry are under consideration for international expansion.
The Most Transformative Products Are the Ones That Solve the Most Human Problem of All
- The sharpest lesson from NeoSapien's journey is this: the next generation of technology products will be built around what human beings fundamentally struggle with, not around what devices can technically do.
- Every person on earth struggles to remember, to stay organised, and to extract meaning from the endless stream of conversations, commitments, and context that defines a modern life. Dhananjay and Aryan saw that not as a personal limitation but as a product opportunity.
- "NeoSapien is not just a wearable device. It represents a vision to turn Homo sapiens into Neo sapiens," the founders say.
Sources: Shark Tank India Club, Startupwired, Tracxn, Indian Retailer, Entrepreneur India, Trak.in, Electronics For You, Inc42
