# Lava Kumar

> Lava Kumar is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Entropik, a Bengaluru-based Emotion AI company that reads human reactions across facial expression, voice, gaze and attention. After nearly two decades building products at Yahoo, Motorola, Wipro, Operative and Integral Ad Science, he returned from the US in 2016 to co-found Entropik and turn affective computing into a working business tool. He leads Decode, the company's integrated human insights platform, and has become a recognizable voice arguing that market research should measure how people actually feel, not just what they say.

- **Role:** Co-founder & Chief Product Officer at Entropik
- **Organizations:** Entropik, Yahoo, Motorola, Wipro, Operative, Integral Ad Science
- **Nationality:** Indian
- **Education:** MBA, College of William & Mary, Engineering, University of Madras
- **Known for:** Co-founded Entropik, one of the most recognized Emotion AI companies to come out of India., Built Decode, an integrated human insights platform trusted by 150+ enterprises., Helped raise approximately $35M in venture funding, including a $25M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners and SIG Venture Capital.

## Career timeline

- **pre-2016** — Held product management roles at Wipro, Motorola, Yahoo (including Yahoo Gemini), Operative and Integral Ad Science across the US and India, building consumer and enterprise adtech and martech platforms.
- **2016** — Co-founded Entropik in Bengaluru with Ranjan Kumar and Bharat Singh Shekhawat, moving from US martech roles to build a deep-tech Emotion AI venture.
- **2016-2022** — Built and scaled Decode, Entropik's integrated human insights platform, validating use cases with 80+ global brands including ITC, Tata and P&G.
- **2023** — Entropik raised a $25M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners and SIG Venture Capital, taking total funding to about $35M.
- **2023-2024** — Led the rollout of Decode 2.0, delivering faster multimodal insights across face, voice, gaze and attention at enterprise scale.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Entropik, one of the most recognized Emotion AI companies to come out of India.
- Built Decode, an integrated human insights platform trusted by 150+ enterprises.
- Helped raise approximately $35M in venture funding, including a $25M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners and SIG Venture Capital.
- Advanced multimodal emotion analysis across facial expression, voice, gaze and attention.
- Led product across global technology companies including Yahoo, Motorola and Operative before founding Entropik.

## Latest updates

- **2023-02** — Entropik raised $25M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners and SIG Venture Capital.
- **2023-08** — Featured as Founder and CPO on industry podcasts discussing multimodal Emotion AI and the future of market research.

## Links

- Website: https://www.entropik.io
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lava-kumar/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/lava-kumar
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-31