## AI Data Analyst Startup Julius Secures $10 Million Seed Round **Report Provider:** TechCrunch **Author:** Marina Temkin **Publication Date:** July 28, 2025 (as indicated by the article's content and URL structure, though the `publishedAt` field is July 29, 2025) **News Type:** Startup Funding, Artificial Intelligence (AI) --- ### Key Findings and Financial Data: * **Julius AI**, a startup positioning itself as an "AI data analyst," has successfully raised **$10 million** in a seed funding round. * The round was **led by Bessemer Venture Partners**. * Other notable participants include **Horizon VC, 8VC, Y Combinator, and the AI Grant accelerator**. * Several prominent angel investors also contributed, including **Aravind Srinivas (CEO of Perplexity), Guillermo Rauch (CEO of Vercel), and Jeff Lawson (co-founder of Twilio)**. ### Company Overview and Offering: * **Founder:** Rahul Sonwalkar * **Launch:** Julius AI was launched by Sonwalkar after graduating from Y Combinator in 2022. He pivoted from a logistics startup he was developing during the accelerator program. * **Core Functionality:** Julius AI is designed to function like a data scientist. It analyzes and visualizes extensive datasets and performs predictive modeling, all driven by natural language prompts. * **Competitive Landscape:** While its functionality overlaps with established AI models like ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini, Julius AI has established its own niche. * **User Engagement:** The company reports having **over two million users** and generating **more than 10 million visualizations**. * **User Experience:** Founder Rahul Sonwalkar emphasizes the ease of use, stating, "The easiest way to use Julius is to just talk to it." Users can interact with the AI as they would with a human analyst, requesting analysis and visualizations through conversational prompts. * **Example Use Case:** Julius AI can answer questions such as, "Can you visualize how revenue and net income correlate for different industries in China versus US?" ### Industry Recognition and Validation: * Julius AI's specialization in data science attracted the attention of **Harvard Business School (HBS) professor Iavor Bojinov**. * Bojinov was so impressed that he requested Sonwalkar to modify Julius specifically for HBS's new required course, "Data Science and AI for Leaders." * Sonwalkar acknowledged initial skepticism about building a product similar to foundational AI models, but highlighted the importance of focusing on a specific use case for success. ### Founder's Background and Notoriety: * Rahul Sonwalkar gained some notoriety during his time at Y Combinator for orchestrating a viral prank involving a fake laid-off Twitter engineer named "Rahul Ligma" shortly after Elon Musk's acquisition of the company. * However, Sonwalkar asserts that his current recognition is primarily for Julius AI, indicating a shift in public perception towards his entrepreneurial endeavors. ### Key Takeaways: * Julius AI's significant seed funding underscores investor confidence in its specialized AI data analysis capabilities. * The company's focus on a user-friendly, conversational interface for data analysis appears to be a key differentiator in a competitive AI market. * The endorsement from a Harvard Business School professor further validates the platform's utility and educational potential. * The success of Julius AI demonstrates the value of niche specialization within the broader AI landscape.
AI data analyst startup Julius nabs $10M seed round | TechCrunch
Read original at TechCrunch →Julius AI, a startup that describes itself as an AI data analyst, announced it has raised a $10 million seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.Horizon VC, 8VC, Y Combinator, the AI Grant accelerator participated in the round along with several high-profile angel investors, including Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, and Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson, among others.
Founder Rahul Sonwalkar launched Julius after graduating from Y Combinator in 2022, and pivoting away from the logistics startup he’d been building during the accelerator program. Julius is designed to act like a data scientist by analyzing and visualizing extensive datasets and then performing predictive modeling from natural language prompts.
Even with functionality similar to that found in ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini, Julius has carved out its own niche. The company said it has more than two million users and generates more than 10 million visualizations.“The easiest way to use Julius is to just talk to it,” Julius AI founder Rahul Sonwalkar told TechCrunch in an earlier interview.
“You can talk to the AI like you would talk to an analyst on your team, and the AI, like a human would go, run the code and do the analysis for you.”Questions that Julius can answer and present in a chart include: “Can you visualize how revenue and net income correlate for different industries in China versus US?
”Julius’ specialization in data science even caught the eye of Harvard Business School (HBS) professor Iavor Bojinov last year. Bojinov was so impressed he asked Sonwalkar to modify Julius specifically for HBS’ new required course called Data Science and AI for Leaders. Techcrunch eventSan Francisco|October 27-29, 2025“People told us you’re not going to succeed,” Sonwalkar said about building a product that’s similar to features available from the foundational model companies.
“What we found was that being focused on a use case is really important.”While going through YC, Sonwalkar also masterminded a viral prank. The morning after Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now X), reporters encountered two men with boxes outside of the company’s headquarters. One of the two men was Sonwalkar, who introduced himself as a recently laid-off Twitter engineer “Rahul Ligma.
” Despite some notoriety gained from the stunt, Somwalkar insists that his startup is a lot more attention-worthy.“I don’t think many people know me for that anymore,” he told TechCrunch in an earlier interview. “I get recognized for Julius a lot more now.”Marina Temkin is a venture capital and startups reporter at TechCrunch.
Prior to joining TechCrunch, she wrote about VC for PitchBook and Venture Capital Journal. Earlier in her career, Marina was a financial analyst and earned a CFA charterholder designation.View Bio
