Smallest AI Taps Banking Veteran Siddharth Sharma to Lead India BFSI Growth
San Francisco-based Smallest AI appoints banking veteran Siddharth Sharma to lead BFSI growth in India following a $21 million funding round.
In a strategic move to penetrate the Indian financial sector, San Francisco-based foundational AI research lab Smallest AI has appointed Siddharth Sharma as the President of Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) for India. Sharma, a seasoned leader with a deep pedigree in digital banking, will now spearhead revenue and partnerships for the company's expanding BFSI vertical, reporting directly to co-founder and CEO Sudarshan Kamath.
A Powerhouse Hire for a Growing Market
The appointment comes at a pivotal moment for Smallest AI. Following a $21 million funding round announced in July 2026, the company is seeing a surge in demand from Indian banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), and insurance providers. These institutions are increasingly seeking sophisticated voice AI solutions capable of managing customer service and collections calls in the diverse native languages spoken across India.
Sudarshan Kamath, co-founder and CEO of Smallest AI, emphasized the need for localized expertise, stating that BFSI has become one of their strongest verticals in India. He noted that banks require partners who truly understand the complexities of evaluating, governing, and scaling technology—a gap he believes Sharma is perfectly equipped to fill given his history of building digital banking businesses within India's largest financial institutions.
Bridging the Gap Between AI and Regulation
One of the primary challenges for regulated financial institutions is data security. Smallest AI addresses this by building its own speech recognition and synthesis models that support self-hosted deployment. This allows banks to run AI systems within their own secure infrastructure, ensuring sensitive data never leaves their control.
The company's technology currently covers over 14 Indian languages in addition to English, making it a potent tool for national-scale operations. Siddharth Sharma highlighted that the need for such technology is most acute in collections and service calls, where AI must function on real phone lines and in the customer's own language.
"Very few companies build the underlying speech models and can run them inside a bank's own infrastructure. I believe that Smallest AI has the combination to solve this issue," said Siddharth Sharma.
A Legacy of Digital Transformation
Siddharth Sharma brings over two decades of experience to the role, having held leadership positions at some of India's most prominent financial entities:
- CRED: Led critical partnerships with various banks and financial institutions.
- Kotak Mahindra Bank: Served as Vice President and Head of Go-to-Market for Digital Initiatives.
- YES Bank: As Senior Vice President, he worked extensively on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), wallets, and the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS).
- CashFlo: Most recently served as Vice President of Credit & Strategy.
The Road Ahead for Smallest AI in India
Operating from Mumbai, Sharma will be responsible for shaping the go-to-market strategy for banks, insurers, and NBFCs. His primary focus will be building a robust partner network and overseeing how voice agents are deployed for onboarding, servicing, and debt collections.
About Smallest AI
Smallest AI is a research lab dedicated to creating next-generation real-time voice AI infrastructure. Through its Voice 4.0 platform and proprietary models like Lightning TTS and Pulse STT, the company enables natural, scalable AI conversations for high-volume environments including healthcare and financial services.
The company is backed by a prestigious group of investors, including Seligman Ventures, Sierra Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Better Capital, Upsparks Capital, Schema Ventures, Tiny VC, DeVC, and Mission Street Capital, among others.