This 21-year-old entrepreneur is building a deepfake audio detection startup that alerts users during live calls
Founded in 2025, San-Franciso and Bengaluru based DetectifAI is building technology to help verify humans and detect AI-generated and manipulated audio, particularly synthetic voices and audio deepfakes.
Tarini Padmanabhuni, a 21-year-old entrepreneur, is developing a deepfake audio detection startup called DetectifAI. The company, based in San Francisco and Bengaluru, aims to prevent deepfake scams that have affected her grandfather. Padmanabhuni, a computer science graduate specializing in Cyber-Physical Systems from MIT Manipal, has five patents pending in deepfake detection and is working on practical AI-based technologies to identify synthetic and manipulated media.
DetectifAI's real-time fraud detection model provides live detection, unlike other models that work after an event. The company focuses on BFSI and healthcare sectors, where voice-based verification systems are crucial for customer authentication, patient validation, fraud prevention, and identity security. With a 10-member team, DetectifAI aims to make digital interactions more trustworthy.
The company has raised a seed round from investors like Josh Constine and Manohar Kamath. Padmanabhuni also developed technology to detect deepfakes directly on phones and computers. Her vision is to create a layer of trust for audio interactions, similar to how Dolby established trust for audio quality. The global deepfake market is projected to reach $32.58 billion by 2033.
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