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India operates the second-largest road network globally, yet the road quality remains inconsistent, affecting millions who rely on these roads daily. This is caused by outdated processes and limited technological infrastructure, as road maintenance agencies depend on manual surveys that cannot feasibly cover thousands of kilometres. Critical data remains in physical files with no digital systems for efficient monitoring. Additionally, manpower shortages make it almost impossible to maintain such vast networks through human effort alone. In 2022, Prerna Kalra, Manav Singal, and Dr Rahul Kalra founded HanuAI in Delhi to address this gap in road maintenance with AI. After eighteen months of research, the team focused on tech development in August 2022 and incorporated the company by November of the same year. Kalra brings HR and business experience, Singal has a technical background from Infosys as CTO, and Dr Kalra handles commercialisation and growth strategy as chief growth officer. The founders' approach centred on building proprietary datasets rather than relying on existing data. "Today, we have the world's largest rural road dataset, and we built it by tackling the toughest road conditions first, the rural roads that no one else wanted to deal with," CEO Prerna Kalra tells YourStory. Hanu AI is part of YourStory’s Tech30 cohort—a selection of India’s most promising startups of 2025—unveiled at TechSparks Bengaluru. The solution HanuAI offers a comprehensive software solution for road maintenance and safety, serving public and private stakeholders in the operation and maintenance stage. The platform helps with budget prioritisation, road asset management, Defect Liability Period payment processing, and maintenance planning within the guidelines laid by the Indian Roads Congress (IRC). The deeptech startup uses AI models to detect road problems and safety issues through computer vision and real-time video analysis. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide highly accurate location data for mapping defects. The platform continuously monitors road conditions, identifying potholes, cracks, and surface damage while predicting when maintenance will be needed before roads fail. The system also identifies road assets, including signs, lane markers, curbs, and median vegetation, helping pinpoint accident-prone black spots to improve road safety. HanuAI has developed its own hardware with backpack-mounted and SUV-mounted designs, currently in development. These IoT devices capture high-quality images and sensor data, sending them to cloud platforms where machine learning processes the information in real-time. The devices capture synchronised video and GPS data for precise anomaly mapping. This creates interactive dashboards showing road conditions, defect locations, and maintenance priorities. The platform follows IRC standards and MoRTH Road Safety Auditing guidelines, and has filed two patents. It has surveyed 155,000 lane kilometres and manages over 13,000 unique roads through direct field work, building extensive datasets. The system includes mobile apps for field data collection, web-based platforms, and complete Road Asset Management System (RAMS) software. Additional features include predictive analytics, Natural Language Processing for report generation, Optical Character Recognition for digitising physical records, and satellite data integration for large-scale monitoring. HanuAI serves government bodies including rural road departments, PWD agencies, municipal corporations, and national highway authorities across 20 Indian states, with notable projects in Punjab, Gujarat, and Gurugram. In the road maintenance technology sector, it competes with Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and Vaisala. Funding and expansion HanuAI has raised Rs 2.5 crore in seed funding from Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL). The startup has also received recognition for its innovation, including winning the NASSCOM Emerge 50 award in 2023, the ESC Ubharte Sitare Award, and a World Bank invitation to showcase its work in Washington, DC. Forbes listed HanuAI among India's most promising startups. Its 62-member team supports the startup’s pan-India operations. HanuAI positions itself as an AI research startup focused on infrastructure development, allocating significant resources to continuous innovation. The company plans to expand globally while establishing domestic market leadership. Within a few years, the startup aims to qualify for larger project bids internationally, competing alongside established global players after meeting he business tenure and revenue scale requirements. HanuAI is part of YourStory’s Tech30 cohort—a selection of India’s most promising startups of 2025—unveiled at TechSparks Bengaluru. (Edited by Kanishk Singh)
