Eightfold AI Hit a $2.1B Valuation After Two Pivots: Ashutosh Garg's Story

TL;DR: Eightfold AI is a talent intelligence platform that uses AI to help large companies recruit, retain and develop employees. It was founded in 2016 by Ashutosh Garg, who had already co-founded Bloomreach, together with Varun Kacholia. As Garg shared on the show, he started coding on September 1, 2016, signed a paying customer within about three months, then lost his way for a year: he stopped selling the original product, pivoted to a recruiting-agency marketplace, and came back to the original product in December 2017. After that, he said, ARR went from "roughly one, two, three" million to "12 and beyond" in a year. Public reports put Eightfold's valuation at $2.1 billion after a $220M Series E in June 2021. Garg told the full story on The Product Market Fit Show. The interview aired in 2024, so the figures he gave were as of then.

A note on timing. Everything Garg says below was said in the 2024 episode and describes events between 2016 and 2019. Funding and valuation figures marked "as of" a date come from public reporting that was checked in October 2026.

What does Eightfold AI do?

Eightfold describes itself as a talent intelligence platform. It uses deep-learning AI to help organizations hire, keep and grow their workforce, with products for talent acquisition and talent management (as of October 2026, per Eightfold's funding announcements and trade press). A 2020 company release listed AirAsia, Bayer, Capital One and Micron among its customers, spanning 110 countries.

The first version was much narrower. Garg described it on the show as a matching tool: take a company's open requisitions and its database of past candidates, analyze what each person has done, and surface the right people for each role.

The core insight was about wasted effort. Companies spend heavily to attract applicants, then never contact most of them again.

"To hire an individual you are reaching out to or engaging 100 plus other people." — Ashutosh Garg, Eightfold AI

Key stat: as he shared on the show, hiring one person can mean engaging 100+ others, so a company that has hired for years is sitting on a huge pool of people it has already talked to. Eightfold's first idea was to "rediscover" that pool.

Garg said he came to this by listening. He validated the idea with about 50 chief human resources officers (CHROs) before building. Their answer to "would you want this?" was unanimously yes, though he admitted on the show that he did not test pricing very well. It was his first time doing go-to-market himself.

Who founded Eightfold AI?

Eightfold AI was founded by Ashutosh Garg, who is CEO, and Varun Kacholia, who is co-founder and CTO (as of October 2026, per Business Standard's 2021 funding coverage and company listings). A web search in October 2026 found no report of a leadership change.

Garg's earlier company is a big part of the story. As he shared on the show, he worked at Google on the search quality team, then co-founded Bloomreach with Raj in 2009. Bloomreach started in organic search for digital marketers, helping them understand what would make their sites show up in Google results. Garg stayed about seven and a half years, as CTO, and left in 2016. On the show, host Pablo Srugo said Bloomreach had gone on to raise about $450 million.

Why leave a working company? Garg said he wanted more direct impact on people.

"If I can help people get a better job at employment, I will have a much bigger, more fundamental impact." — Ashutosh Garg, Eightfold AI

He did not leave abruptly. He said it was a heads-up over roughly two years. Bloomreach raised funding just before he left, and the new investors knew he would depart a few months afterward. Metrics, funding, technology, customers and team were all in place first.

His next idea was not HR at all. He left to start something in healthcare, a second-opinion service routed through trusted hospital networks. But as he pitched HR leaders at large companies, who buy healthcare benefits, they kept steering him toward talent. His investors added a signal of their own: they would back him, but because of him, not because of healthcare. Garg gave himself roughly three to four months to listen, not two years, and then moved to employment.

How much has Eightfold AI raised?

Funding figures below are from the sources named and are as of October 2026 unless noted. Garg's own numbers are marked as such.

• First round, 2016: about $5 million. As Garg shared on the show, this funded an initial team of four or five people. Lightspeed was an investor.
• 2018 round: about $18 million. The host put this at mid-2018. Garg confirmed a 2018 round and said it was driven by conviction in the product and technology, not revenue.
• 2019 round: $28 million. People Matters reported this round, led by Foundation Capital and Lightspeed, brought total funding to $55 million. Garg said the 2019 round was based on revenue traction.
• Series D, October 2020: $125 million, led by General Catalyst, at a $1 billion valuation (Bloomberg and trade press, October 2020).
• Series E, June 2021: $220 million, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, at about a $2.1 billion valuation. Existing investors including General Catalyst, Capital One Ventures, Foundation Capital, IVP and Lightspeed were named in coverage (Business Standard and others, June 2021).

Key stat: reports after the Series E put Eightfold's total funding at more than $410 million. One data aggregator lists a lower figure of about $397 million, so treat the exact total as approximate. On the show, Srugo described the company as having raised about $400 million.

A web search in October 2026 found no newer funding round, valuation or acquisition announcement after the 2021 Series E. Garg offered a simple rule on the show about why rounds differ.

"And I would say the first two, three rounds typically are based on the product technology market conviction. And the later rounds are more driven by the revenue numbers." — Ashutosh Garg, Eightfold AI

How Eightfold AI got its first customers fast, then stalled

Garg said he was lean on purpose. He did not know what to build yet, wanted to conserve cash and wanted to reach the market quickly.

"We started coding probably on first September 2016. And by November and early December, we had a paying customer." — Ashutosh Garg, Eightfold AI

The first version was the matching product, sold as a normal paid product, not a free pilot. He also had his investors in the room. Lightspeed assigned a junior person to help set up CHRO calls, so the firm heard the same feedback he did, in what Garg called "a weird due diligence going on in the real time."

Key stat: as he shared on the show, about five of ten conversations turned into customers, and the company signed five or six customers between December and the end of January. The host estimated those deals at roughly $25K a year each.

Then came the mistake. One of his investors warned him that too much early success could be the wrong signal, because those first customers might simply know and trust him. Garg took it as a warning, and when no new customers signed in February and March, he decided the product was not working.

So he pivoted. The new product helped enterprises manage candidates arriving from recruiting agencies, a marketplace layer between agencies and employers. Pricing was usage-based, with no upfront check. Garg told the sales team to stop selling the original product entirely.

The new product signed 100+ customers, but the money was small, about "quarter million, half a million," as he put it. And the customers were telling him something else.

The pivot back, and the jump from $1M to $12M ARR

Enterprises had to work with agencies but did not like paying for them. Meanwhile, customers kept asking for the original product, help screening and handling the candidates they already had.

"But as that was happening, what I kept hearing a little bit is there was still an excitement about our original product in the market. So by November, I realized that no, actually that was a mistake to stop selling the first one." — Ashutosh Garg, Eightfold AI

By December 2017 Eightfold went back to the original product. By January 2018 it shut the agency product down.

A second change came in 2018. Selling to friends at Bay Area startups did not work well because small companies simply do not have large candidate databases. Eightfold moved to large enterprises outside the Bay Area. Garg said it signed household names early, mentioning American Express in the 2018 to 2019 window, and argued few companies of its size had so many Fortune 500 customers.

Growth followed, per Garg on the show.

"I think in a year we went from roughly one, two, three to 12 and beyond." — Ashutosh Garg, Eightfold AI

Key stat: as he shared on the show, ARR went from roughly $1M to $3M and then to $12M or more within a year of relaunching. He did not give exact dates or a precise figure, and that claim comes from the episode, not independent confirmation.

On when he felt true product-market fit, Garg did not name a moment. He said that by mid to late 2018 it was clear the company was on to something big, and he listed the signals he watches: revenue, customer count, whether others in the company can sell without him, the value customers get, renewals and expansion, and how the market reacts.

Key lessons from Ashutosh's playbook

1. Hold your idea at about 80% conviction and 20% listening. Garg said he moved from healthcare to HR because HR leaders kept telling him talent was the bigger problem. He treated "we will invest because of you, not healthcare" as a signal, not an insult. 2. Keep three to five ideas alive at the start. With one idea, he said, fear of having nothing pushes you to cling to it. With several, you stay flexible. 3. Ask about the value of the outcome, not the price of your product. A buyer asked "what will you pay?" will lowball you. Garg reframed it around what companies already pay per hire, often around 20% of compensation. 4. Early traction can mislead in both directions. His first customers signed quickly and he read the quiet months that followed as failure. He later called stopping the first product a mistake. Look at why customers buy, not just whether they do. 5. Keep listening after you pivot. Customers were still asking for the old product. Pivoting back cost about a year, but it was the move that led to the growth.

His closing advice to early founders was short.

"And the last and the most important one is don't fall in love with your own product." — Ashutosh Garg, Eightfold AI

For more on pivots and finding fit, see how to tell whether to pivot or persevere, when to pivot a startup, a startup pivot case study and what product-market fit looks like in HR tech.

Listen to the full interview: He quit his cozy Google job, founded not 1 but 2 unicorns, then grew from $1M to $12M.

FAQ: Eightfold AI

Q: What is Eightfold AI? A: Eightfold AI is a talent intelligence platform that uses deep-learning AI to help organizations recruit, retain and develop their workforce. A 2020 company release listed AirAsia, Bayer, Capital One and Micron as customers.

Q: Who is the CEO of Eightfold AI? A: Ashutosh Garg is the CEO and co-founder. He founded Eightfold in 2016 with Varun Kacholia, after co-founding Bloomreach in 2009. A web search in October 2026 found no report of a leadership change.

Q: How much funding has Eightfold AI raised? A: Reports after its June 2021 Series E put total funding at more than $410 million, though one aggregator lists about $397 million. The latest round found was the $220M Series E, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, at about a $2.1 billion valuation. No newer round was found as of October 2026.

Q: Who are Eightfold AI's investors? A: Publicly named investors include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Foundation Capital, IVP and Capital One Ventures. Garg said on the show that Lightspeed backed his first round.

Q: How fast did Eightfold AI grow? A: As Garg shared on the show, the company signed a paying customer within about three months of writing code, and after relaunching its original product its ARR went from roughly $1M to $3M and then to $12M or more within a year. These figures are from the 2024 episode and are not independently confirmed.

Sources: Listen to the Full Founder Story

• Ashutosh Garg, Eightfold AI — co-founded Bloomreach, then started Eightfold AI, pivoted away from and back to his original product, and grew ARR from roughly $1M to $12M+ in a year.

Listen to the full episode at pmf.show for the complete story.

Last updated: October 2026