Gaming-focused advertising and ad-tech company Napptix has made a strategic investment in Akai Space, an AI startup founded by IIT Bombay alumni Himanshu Kumar, Kunal Purohit, and Daksh Katkar. Akai Space provides data labelling services for artificial intelligence and machine-learning applications.
The company uses scalable, crowd-sourced models and technology-led workflows to deliver high-quality datasets. These are used by organisations across industries to train and deploy AI systems, with a focus on building reliable data infrastructure for responsible AI development.
The investment marks Napptix’s first institutional backing of Akai Space and signals the start of a long-term technology partnership between the two companies. As part of the collaboration, Akai Space will support the development of next-generation capabilities across several Napptix products, with an emphasis on scalability and long-term sustainability.
“Akai Space stood out to us because of their strong technical foundation, clear problem understanding, and the ability to execute at scale,” said Chirag Shah, Investor and Co-founder of Napptix. “High-quality labeled data is the backbone of intelligent AI systems, and Akai Space is building exactly that layer with speed and responsibility.”
Commenting on the development, Kunal Purohit, Co-Founder of Akai Space, said the investment represents an important early validation of the company’s vision. “Their focus on innovation across ad-tech, sustainability, and AI aligns perfectly with what we’re building at Akai Space,” he said.
The partnership highlights a shared focus on building India-origin technology solutions with global relevance amid growing demand for scalable data infrastructure in the AI ecosystem.
Napptix helps brands connect with gamers through its end-to-end gaming solutions. The company recently expanded its international presence with the acquisition of Yazle MENA, strengthening its footprint in the Middle East.
With the investment, Akai Space plans to scale its data annotation operations and support more organisations building AI systems using high-quality and diverse datasets.
