How I Raised Brings Two AI Founders Into the Seed-Round Conversation

A financing announcement makes the round look finished. The founder usually remembers a much longer sequence of rooms, revisions, rejections and decisions that never reached the press release.

nextNYC's How I Raised brings Manthan Pawar of Destro AI and Advait Raykar of Elm AI into that earlier story on October 21. Destro AI is building a shared intelligence layer for warehouse robots. Elm AI is building agents for procurement, sourcing and supplier-compliance work. Qapita sponsors the series.

Why this room matters

The value of a fundraising conversation is rarely the polished lesson delivered after the check arrives. It is the detail a founder can still remember about the moment the story changed, the proof an investor kept returning to or the part of the pitch that only became obvious after it failed.

Two founders working across different enterprise AI markets give the room a useful comparison. The round may share a stage label. The customer, technical and distribution proof behind it can be completely different.

Event details

• Date: October 21, 2026
• Time: 12:00-1:00 p.m. ET
• Format: Virtual webinar
• Host: nextNYC
• Panelists: Manthan Pawar and Advait Raykar
• Sponsor: Qapita
• Register: Official event page

Use the official page for current registration and program information.