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The journey from disassembling toys to redefining how people experience luxury automobiles epitomizes the unexpected path of Prakshal Jain. An innovative immigrant entrepreneur specializing in spatial computing and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Jain is the founder of Chimera, a human-centered AR/VR design configurator transforming luxury car retail. From a small town in India, Jain has emerged as a leader for the future of experiential commerce.
Born to a middle-class family in Satna, India, Jain’s parents hoped he would follow in their footsteps and become a doctor, but he strayed from that path early on. It began when his uncle gifted him a remote-controlled car, and he decided to open it up and see how it worked.
“That moment sparked a lifelong curiosity about computers and machines,” Jain shared. “From then on, I would ask for remote-controlled cars just so I could dismantle them.”
By sixth grade, Jain was fixing pens for his classmates. By ninth grade, he had earned an international rank of seven at the NSF Cyber Olympiad and gained attention at a Google Science Fair for a cell phone signal booster he had built. From then on, his focus shifted from hardware to software.
Eventually, Jain’s parents enrolled him in boarding school to prepare for India’s IIT-JEE exam. During his time there, he realized he needed to go to the United States—specifically Silicon Valley, an epicenter of innovation. So, he decided to prepare for the SAT and apply to U.S. colleges.
During his undergraduate studies, Jain fell in love with the U.S., but struggled with homesickness. To cope, he poured himself into building “Zeal,” a machine learning (ML) platform to match founders and teammates based on skills and personality. When this resource gained traction on campus, he won the Blackstone LaunchPad Startup Bootcamp Award. For this achievement, Zeal caught the eye of a Meta recruiter.
“I soon found myself working at one of the world’s top tech companies—during a wave of massive layoffs,” Jain shared. “Over 10,000 people were let go shortly after I joined. I was terrified—not just of losing my job, but of losing my visa and everything I’d worked so hard to build. That fear fueled me. I pushed harder, determined to prove my value and secure my future.”
At Meta, Jain worked to join the company’s accessible AR/VR design team to become a spatial computing expert and immersive technology innovator. For his efforts, his work was live-demoed by Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Connect 2024. This recognition was deeply validating, but Jain still yearned to achieve something more—something that was truly his own.
“I felt pulled toward a lifelong passion,” Jain stated. “Cars.”
After watching the Ferrari movie, Jain hoped for a chance to explore supercars up close. So, he began building an AR/VR experience with AI-powered product configurators. When he got a chance to visit a Porsche dealership, he realized that his prototype had legitimate applications.
“There,” Jain recalled, “I saw a frustrated client juggling color swatches trying to visualize his car. ‘The configurator doesn’t do it justice,’ he said. It hit me—why not use my prototype as a true 3D configurator? I called it Chimera.”
Jain took his prototype to several dealerships, and they raved about the experience. A community began to grow around Chimera. He was now an AR/VR entrepreneur and an AI startup founder, applying machine learning to immersive tech. Since he introduced it, sales teams and dealership owners have been eager to adopt his solution—for Jain, it’s been a full-circle moment.
“This journey, from childhood curiosity to industry innovation, continually reminds me that meaningful creations stem from genuine human connections and shared passions,” Jain said. “Every interaction, every excited reaction, motivates me to push further, knowing that what I’m building can genuinely make people’s lives better and their experiences richer.”
From remote-controlled cars as a child to the groundbreaking AR/VR experiences he now creates, Jain’s path reminds us that innovation often comes full circle, connecting our earliest fascinations with our most meaningful work.
