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Serial entrepreneur and investor Aakash Anand, Founder of Bella Vita Organic, has announced his latest venture, Unikon.ai, a peer-to-peer networking platform. 

The platform has secured $2 million in seed investment from a notable group of entrepreneurs and influencers including Nikhil Kamath (Zerodha), Peyush Bansal (Lenskart), Vishesh Khurana (Shiprocket), Dholakia Ventures, Nitin Jain and Vasant Sridhar (OfBusiness), and Gaurav Khatri (Noise).

Other prominent figures include Tanmay Bhatt, Raj Shamani, Arjun Vaidya, Sharan Hegde (Finance with Sharan), Ganeshprasad (Thinkschool), Shlok Shrivastava (Techburner), and Rahul Malodia (Business Coach).

“Unikon stands for ‘you and I connect’. It is an open-source platform where we have taken away the problem of access. Each user maintains a personal profile with customisable rates for audio calls, video calls, or direct messages,” Aakash Anand told YourStory.

“Based on these rates and their professional background, users can connect with others for video calls, audio calls, or chats within 24-48 hours, or instantly,” he said.

Anand founded the direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand Bella Vita Organic in 2018, which was acquired by Ananta Capital, supported by the Taparia family of Famy Care Group. 

Leading Unikon.ai alongside Anand are co-founders Palash Arneja, the Chief Operating Officer, a chartered accountant with more than a decade of experience, and Chief Technology Officer Sumit Jha. Sumit previously served as the CTO of Zecpe, which was acquired by Cashfree in 2023.

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Currently, the company operates in India and plans to launch in the US within three months. 

“While building my startups, I’ve been the least networked founder in the industry. For example, business development is such a massive use case where people spend time, money, or fuel on cold calls and cold visits. So we thought, what if a platform could be created where you get paid for your time and knowledge?” Akash said.

Headquartered in Gurugram, Unikon.ai facilitates networking between users, helping them to engage in personal and professional inquiries. For instance, an aspiring founder can seek guidance from industry peers, or individuals dealing with anxiety can find support from experienced professionals.

It also provides free, AI-recommended 1:1 discussions across various subjects and a customised content feed to keep users engaged. 

Its AI search ensures easy discovery of suitable advisors, the company said. Users can pose questions for professional advice, organise events such as webinars or workshops, and share expertise to earn income.

The platform also allows users to set prices and schedules for private sessions via chat, audio, or video calls. The monetisation platform aims to democratise access to guidance and knowledge from individuals who have “been there and done that” or “presently doing it”.