This Indian Father-Son Duo is Challenging AI Giants from the West
In a world where AI innovation is largely dictated by Silicon Valley and China, Camb.ai is quietly making a case for deep-tech leadership from outside the usual power centres. Founded by Avneesh Prakash (CEO) and son Akshat Prakash (CTO), the company operates from Dubai but has a significant Indian influence. Camb provides speech and translation AI offering, dubbing content in over 140 languages using its proprietary AI models. The startup has partnered with sports, production companies, and other verticals for live AI content. Rethinking AI Economics While most AI companies are locked in a race to scale large models, Camb is betting on small language models (SLMs). Its focus on SLMs through models such as Mars 6, which has just 80 million parameters, makes it apt to run on a smartphone. “If I can fit something on your phone, it suddenly changes the game completely. You don’t need these large-scale GPUs. You don’t need to have a central place to call everything from,” said Akshat in an exclusive interaction with AIM. Akshat believes that this approach reshapes AI’s cost dynamics. Instead of companies paying per-API-call fees to OpenAI or Google, Camb.ai envisions a future where AI models run independently on consumer devices. “We are so much more than speech-to-speech or AI dubbing. When we are successful, we also have the ability to redefine the economics of AI,” he said. AI Without Borders Unlike western AI firms that operate from a singular tech hub, Camb.ai has built its foundation with a globally distributed team. “People are very confused about how a Dubai-born or an East-born company could be pulling off such feats that they would have expected western companies to do,” said Akshat. Beyond its global presence, Camb.ai also challenges the narrative of AI ownership. While many companies rely on external APIs from OpenAI or Anthropic, Camb has built its own proprietary models. As a strategic move to prove its independence, it even open-sourced Mars 5, a high-performance voice model. “The world didn’t want to believe in us, so open-sourcing was a great way to tell them, ‘Look, we’re building our own technology’.” Camb.ai partnered with Major League Soccer and became the first company to live stream the games in multiple languages. The company’s real-time AI dubbing and translation were also successfully deployed during the 2025 Australian Open. “Sports has all the difficult elements of content that make this problem hard. It has background cheering, noise, loud environments, multiple commentators, niche lingo, and fast-paced action,” Akshat explained. By perfecting AI dubbing for sports, Camb ensures its technology is robust enough for broader enterprise applications. That’s not all. The startup, which raised a $4 million seed round led by Courtside Ventures last year, has also partnered with IMAX to offer multilingual support for films. Beyond Dubbing While Camb started with AI dubbing, its long-term vision is to break language barriers at scale. “The internet was made for English speakers, and we want to redesign it for the world,” said Akshat. Its AI solutions now extend beyond speech and video translation, helping enterprises localise digital content, improve fan engagement, and automate multilingual communications. The company’s app, Savant, takes this mission further. It allows users to type and interact in multiple languages seamlessly, making cross-language communication frictionless. “If anybody can text you in the language they’re most comfortable in, and you can receive it in your preferred language, that’s amazing,” he added. Despite its rapid rise, Camb.ai is still competing against AI giants with massive funding and infrastructure. However, Akshat believes their focus on smaller, more efficient AI models will give them an edge in the long run. “The biggest challenge in AI today isn’t just innovation, it’s making AI sustainable and scalable. If we can solve that, we change the game,” he concluded.
“The world didn’t want to believe in us, so open-sourcing was a great way to tell them, ‘Look, we’re building our own technology’,” said Akshat Prakash, co-founder and CTO of Camb.ai.
“The world didn’t want to believe in us, so open-sourcing was a great way to tell them, ‘Look, we’re building our own technology’,” said Akshat Prakash, co-founder and CTO of Camb.ai.
["AI dubbing", "Camb ai", "live translation", "Major Soccer League", "Mars 6", "slm"]
["Anthropic", "Go", "OpenAI", "AI", "ML", "live translation", "slm", "SLM", "Scala", "AI dubbing", "Camb ai", "Major Soccer League", "Mars 6", "Aim", "small language models", "R"]
["AI", "ML", "OpenAI", "Anthropic", "Aim", "small language models", "SLM", "R", "Go", "Scala"]
As a rare blend of engineering, MBA, and journalism degree, Vandana Nair brings a unique combination of technical know-how, business acumen, and storytelling skills to the table. Her insatiable curiosity for all things startups, businesses, and AI technologies ensures that there's always a fresh and insightful perspective to her reporting. She now hosts her tech segment 'Point Break' on AIM Tv.