IIT Graduates Face Racial Trolling After Securing $61 Million for AI Startup Giga

Nov 08, 2025 03:58 pm CST

Two IIT Kharagpur alumni, Varun Vummadi and Esha Manideep, faced racial harassment online after announcing their voice AI startup Giga secured $61 million in funding. Despite the trolling about their appearance, supporters highlighted that their technological innovation—already trusted by companies like DoorDash—is what truly matters in their journey from turning down lucrative opportunities to building enterprise-grade conversational AI solutions.