Stellaris Just Backed an Indian AI That Automates the Work of an Entire Equity Research Team

Equity research at an institutional fund typically involves a team of analysts, months of work, and significant overhead. Pinegap is replacing that process with AI agents.

The New York and Bengaluru-based startup raised $8 million in a Series A round led by Stellaris Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Silicon Valley Quad and DeVC. The company was founded in 2024 by Ankit Varmani and Deepak Sharma and has grown to serve more than 100 customers — hedge funds and mutual funds — with over 1,000 AI agents deployed on the platform.

Pinegap builds AI agents that automate the core workflows of equity research: analyzing earnings data, tracking investment theses over time, surfacing relevant news against a portfolio, and managing the documentation that institutional investors are required to maintain. The platform is not a chatbot that answers questions. It is an operational layer that runs research processes continuously, the way an analyst team would, but without the headcount costs or turnaround time.

The India-US structure is deliberate. The founding team is building the product out of Bengaluru, where access to deep technical talent for AI and finance is strong, while the go-to-market is anchored in New York, where the institutional fund customer base is concentrated. Stellaris Venture Partners, one of India's most active Series A firms with a portfolio spanning consumer, SaaS, and fintech, is backing the firm as a crossover play: India-built infrastructure for global financial markets.

The fresh capital will fund expansion of the engineering team, build out the GTM motion, and bring in former equity research analysts to refine the platform's output quality.

What this means for founders

Pinegap's raise is a proof point about domain-specific AI agents: the market for "AI that automates what a team of experts does" is real and fundable at Series A with 100 customers and demonstrable workflow replacement. For founders building AI agents for professional services — law, accounting, research, compliance — the architecture question that matters is whether your system handles the full workflow or just assists with parts of it. Workflow replacement, not copiloting, is where the enterprise value is concentrating.

Investors: Stellaris Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Quad, DeVC Round: Series A — $8M Traction: 100+ customers, 1,000+ AI agents deployed

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