Srikanth Velamakanni was asking one question long before AI became a boardroom priority. How can data lead to better decisions? He started out pricing financial risk in investment banking, then co-founded Fractal in the year 2000. It began as an analytics venture and grew into a global enterprise AI company.
Today, Velamakanni leads Fractal as Group Chief Executive and Executive Vice-Chairman and also chairs Nasscom. His career reflects a bigger shift in technology, from data that helped businesses understand risk to AI that now helps them make the decision itself.
Velamakanni's career started with engineering and management. He studied electrical engineering at IIT Delhi, then went on to complete his management degree at IIM Ahmedabad.
After business school, he joined ANZ Investment Bank in the year 1998 as an associate. He later moved to ICICI Bank. There he worked on structured transactions, including collateralized debt instruments. This work put him close to high-stakes financial decisions. He saw how numbers, models, and assumptions shaped choices involving large amounts of capital.
Soon his career moved beyond financial risk. The same thinking that explained financial outcomes could also solve wider business problems. That idea eventually led him toward analytics.
In February 2000, Velamakanni and a group of IIM Ahmedabad alumni founded Fractal in Mumbai. At the time, business analytics was still developing. Companies had growing amounts of data, but many struggled to turn it into decisions they could use.
Fractal was built around this gap. Its early work covered consumer insights, predictive analytics, and marketing effectiveness. The company did more than process data. It helped businesses understand what the data meant and how it could improve their choices.
Velamakanni brought a wide range of interests to the work. His finance background helped him understand business risk. His engineering training shaped his analytical approach. His interest in behavioral economics and consumer psychology added one more layer, understanding why people choose what they choose. This mix became part of Fractal's approach as it grew.
Fractal spent more than two decades changing along with technology. Analytics slowly gave way to machine learning and artificial intelligence. The company moved with that shift.
For Velamakanni, the goal stayed the same. Technology had to improve a decision or solve a real problem. AI was the tool, not the point.
Fractal also grew beyond consulting by building AI ventures. Qure.ai applies AI to medical imaging. Cuddle.ai delivers insights to executives. Eugenie.ai spots anomalies in operational data. These ventures reflect a shift from explaining data to acting on it, much like Velamakanni's own path from finance to analytics to AI.
1996: Finishes B.Tech in Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi.
1998: Wraps up his management degree at IIM Ahmedabad and joins ANZ Investment Bank.
1999: Moves to ICICI Bank to work on structured transactions.
2000: Co-founds Fractal in Mumbai.
2024: Steps into the role of Vice Chairperson at Nasscom.
February 2026: Fractal lists on the BSE and NSE.
April 2026: Takes over as Chairperson of Nasscom.
The two-decade arc reached a new stage in 2026. Fractal reported revenue from operations of Rs. 32.997 billion for the fiscal year, which is 19% higher than the previous year. Profit after tax reached Rs. 2.868 billion, a rise of 30%. The company was listed on the BSE and NSE on 16th February of 2026, following its public offering.
For Velamakanni, the listing marked the latest stage in a two-decade transition from analytics services toward enterprise AI and a shift from a private startup to a publicly traded business.
Velamakanni's role now reaches beyond the company he started. He spent more than six years on Nasscom's executive council before becoming Vice Chairperson in September 2024.
In April 2026, he was appointed Chairperson, succeeding Sindhu Gangadharan. On taking the role, Velamakanni said his focus would be driving the next cycle of AI-powered growth across services and products and preparing India's workforce to work alongside AI. NASSCOM has framed his agenda around AI-led services transformation, product and deep tech innovation, and responsible AI practices. Those priorities echo his own path, from services and analytics toward technology-led decision-making at scale.
Also Read: Top 100 Fastest-Growing AI Companies in India (2026)
Outside Fractal, Velamakanni has put time into education and industry governance. He is a founder and trustee of Plaksha University, a technology-focused institution in Punjab that trains engineers for emerging fields.
He also serves as Non-Executive Chairman of IdeaForge and holds a board role at NIIT. His work has earned him IIM Ahmedabad's Young Alumni Achiever Award and IIT Delhi's Distinguished Alumni Award in the year 2025.
The tools Velamakanni works with have changed almost beyond recognition since 1998. Spreadsheets and financial models gave way to increasingly sophisticated AI systems supporting enterprise decisions. What has stayed fixed is the question behind all of it: how can better data lead to a better call? It now connects his work at Fractal with the broader priorities he brings to Nasscom.
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