Aditi Aggarwal (GTM Unbound), in collaboration with Shivam Desai (CorridorX) and Phalgun Chidanand (The Drafting Room), hosted over 250 founders and investors at the US–India AI Summit: Bangalore, held on 21 November at Workhome. The gathering marked one of the largest community-led AI events in the city this year, creating a rare forum for founders building across both the US and Indian markets to meet, exchange insights, and form new collaborations.
Aditi Aggarwal, Founder & CEO of GTM Unbound, said:
“What we’re building at GTM Unbound goes beyond events. It’s about creating repeated, high-trust touchpoints where founders genuinely learn from each other, meet the right people at the right time, and get the real go-to-market clarity they need to scale across borders. The energy at this summit showed how powerful these connections can be for AI founders building globally.”
A Community-Driven Approach to AI Growth
Across the evening, founders had the opportunity to learn from live product demos, market-focused conversations, and candid investor perspectives. The lineup included presentations from six emerging AI founders, three of which travelled from the US, each showcasing solutions designed for global scale.
In one of the most unexpected moments of the evening, the format flipped and it was the investors who stood up to pitch. Leaders from Antler, Stellaris, Avataar Venture Partners, Let’s Venture, and several prominent angels spoke directly to the founders in the room about how conviction in AI companies is actually built. It was honest and unusually transparent, laying bare how funds think about GTM readiness, cross-border potential, and founder–market fit. The segment brought the room together, with early founders and seasoned builders hearing firsthand how leading investors differentiate themselves beyond capital.
Among those present were founders from Finstackk, XFlow, Efficient Capital Labs, and several emerging AI startups, alongside representatives from 19 funds active across the US–India corridor including Avatar, Z47 ventures, Peak XV Ventures, Bajaj Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Leo Capital, LVX Ventures, Sangam Ventures, Axilor and 2.2 Club.
The summit also brought together leading investors including Aakash Kumar (Z47/Matrix), Ankit Chowdhary (South Park Commons) and Varsha Jalan (Khaitan Legal Associates) for a conversation on the realities of AI funding, founder readiness, and cross-border expansion.
As the structured sessions gave way to the social segment, the mood shifted from formal to conversational. Groups formed across corners of the space, where founders compared GTM launch strategies, investors debated category depth versus category speed, and operators discussed what it really takes to enable cross-border scale from team formation to regulatory navigation. It was less about exchanging cards and more about testing ideas, challenging assumptions, and discovering common ground.
Building the US–India AI Corridor
The summit underscored a shared mission among the hosts to strengthen the US–India tech corridor through founder-led, community-driven engagement. Whether through founder walks, curated roundtables, mixers or focused conferences, the goal remains consistent to create high-signal environments where founders, operators and investors can build trust, exchange insights and unlock cross-border opportunities that accelerate scale.
This gathering was part of a growing effort to build consistent, founder-first touchpoints across both geographies, helping teams navigate go-to-market challenges with sharper clarity and collective learning. Over recent months, the hosts have facilitated meaningful engagement across pitch nights, community mixers, invite-only roundtables, operator sessions and cross-border mini-conferences, bringing together a diverse mix of ecosystem builders.
The Bangalore summit reinforced a simple truth that AI innovation today is inherently global, and founders are increasingly building for multiple markets from day one.
Presented By
The US–India AI Summit was hosted by GTM Unbound, CorridorX, and The Drafting Room, in collaboration with AWS, Newsreach, Brandstory Digital, Commenda, Proposal GPT, and Khaitan Legal Associates.
About GTM Unbound
GTM Unbound supports growth-stage technology companies in expanding across the US–India corridor through ecosystem evangelism, strategic partnerships and event-led go-to-market initiatives. The organisation works with founders to shape market entry strategies, build high-impact partnerships, access capital more effectively and plays an active role in strengthening cross-border innovation and enabling tech companies to scale globally.
About CorridorX
CorridorX operates on a simple conviction: the future of US–India AI collaboration will be shaped by seamless cross-border talent, capital flow, and shared ambition. To make this future real, CorridorX helps high-growth startups scale globally through full-stack GCC setups, dedicated AI Engineering Pods, and top-tier staff augmentation for Seed to Series C stages.
About the Drafting Room
The Drafting Room is a private founders’ club designed to offer exclusive work and social spaces for India’s next generation of builders. Conceived and crafted by designers, it sits in the heart of India’s Silicon Valley - Koramangala, providing an inspiring environment where founders can work, connect and create.
No VCCircle journalist was involved in the creation/production of this content.
