Unicorn startup Apna bets big on voice AI with Blue Machines, to speed up enterprise deployments

Bengaluru-based unicorn startup Apna.co has come up with a new vertical, BlueMachines.ai, an enterprise-grade voice AI agent platform, which allows enterprises to deploy them in production. The new-age professional networking platform claims within 45 days, Blue Machines has signed over $6 million in enterprise contracts, which places it among the fastest enterprise AI adoption curves in India.

The platform, which is a Series C company, is powering deployments across industries such as lending, mutual funds, insurance, healthcare, recruitment, and edtech. As global workforces shift from human-only to human-plus-AI agents, Apna’s expansion into Blue Machines reflects its focus on empowering enterprises to hire talent and deploy AI agents within their workforce.

“Blue Machines marks India’s entry into the global enterprise voice AI platform race. We’re winning because of the platform’s execution, speed, and reliability — deployments go live in under a week, compared to the industry average of five to six weeks. The platform has delivered a 100% implementation success rate, a benchmark rarely matched in enterprise AI. Blue Machines is growing very rapidly and is a valuable addition to our current set of businesses, which themselves are growing at an impressive 52% year-over-year in 2025,” said Nirmit Parikh, Founder and Group CEO.

Apna, which operates as a Provider of AI‑powered professional networking and job search platform, has raised $194 million in funding from investors like Tiger Global Management, Insight Partners and Greenoaks, with a current valuation of $1.1 billion.

What is Blue Machines?

The Blue Machines platform is enterprise-grade and scalable, with round-trip latency under 300 milliseconds, multilingual fluency across Indian languages and dialects, and enterprise-grade data governance. It operates on a platform-plus-people model, combining advanced AI infrastructure with dedicated Forward-Deployed Engineers (FDEs) to ensure every deployment moves smoothly from prototype to production.

“Every company is experimenting with AI, but very few are running it in production,” said Kshitij Jain, COO of Blue Machines. “Blue Machines changes that by combining a global-scale architecture with forward-deployed engineering, enabling enterprises to go live in days, not months, fully operational, compliant, and proven at scale.”

The company claims Blue Machines is scaling as an independent business unit, with a dedicated team focused on building a strong global enterprise contract pipeline.

Last month, Apna.co unveiled a new system called ‘Apna Safety’ to prevent job scams and protect job seekers during the festive hiring surge. The unicorn startup's AI-powered recruiter verification system delivered strong results in its August and September 2025 pilot. “More than 1,46,000 recruiters were verified through AI checks, leading to a 45% reduction in fraud exposure for job seekers. Within two months, safety-related complaints on Apna’s Play Store listing fell by 60%, and the app reached a 4.7 rating on the Play Store, the highest among jobs platforms in India,” the company said.

Notably, fraudulent job practices remain one of India’s most persistent employment risks. Common tactics include fraudsters impersonating recruiters from various companies and asking for fake registration fees, security deposits, or training/course charges, as well as demanding that candidates open bank accounts, transfer salaries, or purchase digital products as a condition of employment.