Ziroh Labs
Category: AI Infrastructure
Ziroh Labs is a deeptech startup building Kompact AI, a CPU-first enterprise inference platform that enables LLM inference on conventional CPUs instead of GPUs. Ziroh Labs was founded in 2016. The company is led by Hrishikesh Dewan. Based in Bengaluru, India / Palo Alto, USA. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $91K. Latest round: Grant.
- Founded
- 2016
- Headquarters
- Bengaluru, India / Palo Alto, USA
- Team size
- 11-50
- Total funding
- $91K
Value proposition
Kompact AI enables enterprises to run large language models and AI inference on existing CPU infrastructure (Intel AMX, AVX, ARM SVX), eliminating GPU dependency, reducing cost by 70-80%, and enabling private, sovereign, energy-efficient AI deployment on-prem, cloud, or edge.
Products and solutions
Kompact AI (CPU-native LLM inference platform), Kompact AI Box solutions: SBox (sovereign/government), EBox (education), RBox (retail), HBox (healthcare), FinBox (banking/finance), Zunu Encryption-as-a-Service (earlier product line)
Unique value
CPU-first AI inference that runs on hardware enterprises already own — zero new power infrastructure, no per-token cloud costs, private by design, and deployable in minutes across on-prem, cloud, or edge environments.
Target customer
Enterprises across healthcare, education, banking/finance, retail, and government/public sector (sovereign AI deployments) that need cost-efficient, private, and compliant AI inference without GPU infrastructure.
Industries served
Healthcare, Education, Banking & Finance, Retail, Government/Public Sector (Sovereign AI), Data Centers
Technology advantage
Runs on Intel AMX, AVX-512, and ARM SVX instruction sets; supports models up to 32B parameters with 64K context window and batch size 64; NUMA-aware multi-socket support; OpenAI-compatible REST API with SDKs in 8 languages; distributed by design with no centralized infrastructure; delivers ~3x performance of existing CPU-based solutions.
How they differentiate
Unlike Groq, Cerebras, and SambaNova which build specialized accelerator hardware, Ziroh Labs runs AI inference on commodity CPUs already deployed in enterprise environments — eliminating the need for new hardware purchases, reducing TCO, and enabling sovereign/private AI deployments in emerging markets.
Main competitors
Groq, Cerebras, SambaNova
Key partnerships
IIT Madras & IITM Pravartak Foundation (Centre of AI Research - COAIR), IIT Guwahati (AI/LLM course), Guru Nanak Institutions (Privacy Lab), Whitfield Diffie (Turing Award laureate, advisor/collaborator)
Notable customers
IIT Madras (Centre of AI Research), IIT Guwahati (AI course collaboration), Guru Nanak Institutions (Privacy Lab)
Major milestones
2016: Founded in Bengaluru, 2017: First funding round (Grant + Angel), 2019: Connected with Prof. Thomas Binford (Stanford) and Whitfield Diffie, 2025: Launched Kompact AI in partnership with IIT Madras, Established Centre of AI Research (COAIR) with IITM Pravartak Foundation, 2026: Expanded Kompact AI across sectors (healthcare, education, retail, finance, sovereign), Launched IIT Guwahati AI course
Market positioning
Positioned as a democratizing force in AI infrastructure, targeting emerging markets and enterprises that cannot afford GPU-heavy infrastructure, with a focus on frugal innovation and energy-efficient AI for developing nations.
Geographic focus
India (primary), emerging markets, with US presence in Palo Alto
About Hrishikesh Dewan
PhD, Indian Institute of Science (IISc); Ex-Siemens; Author of 4 computing books (McGraw-Hill, Apress). Founded Ziroh Labs in 2016 after PhD at IISc, mentored by Prof. Swami Manohar.
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Official website: https://www.ziroh.com/
