[month] [year]

Santosh G S K and Mahathi Bhagavatula

Ad-ventures in AI: This IIITH Alumni Power-Couple is Giving Ad Creatives a Brain

Volkano AI, co-founded by IIITH alumni Santosh GSK and Mahathi Bhagavatula, was recently featured in YourStory as one of the most promising startups to watch. A new player in the generative AI space, Volkano AI is redefining ad creatives for retail and e-commerce brands with its innovative SaaS platform. In this story, the “IT couple” walk us through their unique journey.

Volkano AI: Where AI Meets Ad Intelligence
“If I’m selling running shoes, should I target college students or sports professionals?”

That’s the kind of question Volkano AI helps answer.

The SaaS platform analyzes Instagram and Facebook ad creatives to identify what elements—colors, copy, hooks—are actually driving engagement. It enables brand marketers to finally see what’s working and why.

“We help advertisers solve core business questions using data, machine learning, and AI,” explain co-founders Santosh and Mahathi. The duo recently launched their future-ready web app at the D2C India x IReC 2025 in Bangalore, presenting their solution to 1000+ delegates and 150+ expert speakers.

Operating out of Hyderabad’s T-Hub incubator, the five-month-old startup already boasts a strong client base. Santosh, identifying the massive untapped opportunity in ad performance optimization, followed Steve Wozniak’s advice: to build extraordinary products, become your own customer. “I became an advertiser to understand the pain points inside out.”

Mahathi, who leads the AI team and drives sales and marketing, brings 11+ years of experience in NLP and AI across diverse industries—from Ayurveda to Finance. Her freelance work with clients in the US, Israel, and India laid the foundation for Volkano’s cutting-edge GenAI capabilities.

Why Ad Creatives Are the Future
In 2021, Apple’s iOS 14 update disrupted Meta’s ad targeting algorithms. Suddenly, platforms like Instagram and Facebook could no longer track user behavior reliably.

“Advertisers realized that targeting wasn’t the lever anymore—creative messaging was. That’s when we pivoted to creatives,” shares Santosh.

Today, brand managers are churning out 200–300 ad creatives per month to keep up. “This volume would’ve been impossible without AI. The entire ad creative pipeline—from analysis to generation—is growing fast,” he adds.

An Unconventional Journey to IIIT Hyderabad
Both Santosh and Mahathi have quirky school stories. While Santosh’s grandfather had to lock him in class to keep him from running away, Mahathi often slept through hers.

Santosh, from Mancherial, was nudged toward IIT after topping his class and discovering a love for math and physics. After scoring an AIR of 1300, he chose IIIT Hyderabad’s dual degree program. “IIITH felt like home. I owe a lot to my mentors—Prof. K Paul, Prof. CV Jawahar, Prof. Vikram Pudi and more importantly our Guide Prof. Vasudeva Varma —who shaped my foundation in machine learning, Information retrieval, Data science and NLP,” he recalls.

In his second year, he developed an NLP-based Nokia mobile app that caught the attention of IIT Bombay researchers. “I was drawn to challenges from early on,” Santosh reflects. “Whether it was physics introduced by a friend or cracking logic puzzles, I loved solving hard problems.”

He published seven international publications at premier conferences.  His blog post on his ICML experience got very good traction.

When Research Sparks Connection
Mahathi entered the master’s program in 2010 and joined SIEL Lab. “What I really liked about our Lab was Prof. Vasudeva Varma ‘s approach to the subject and the industry-oriented research that helped us with excellent career prospects.” she shares.

She worked closely with Santosh on projects related to Telugu entity recognition and NLP, eventually co-authoring international papers with him for CIKM and ACL. In fact, Mahathi received a prestigious scholarship to attend ACL, a milestone that reinforced her path in research. “We aligned on curiosity and long-term goals. That laid the foundation for everything,” says Mahathi.

Felicity, Dance, and Red Bull
“I am a trained Kuchipudi dancer and had won the first prize at Felicity when I was at Muffakham Jah”, reports Mahathi. “During my IIITH days, I was always occupied with cultural activities and Felicity was a very important event in my academic calendar. For one mega dance-drama that attracted a lot of praise, I brought together several Indian dance forms like Mohiniattam, Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam etc and trained my friends and juniors.” 

From origami and organizing events at Felicity to pivoting to coding competitions,  Santosh chimes in, “The greatest fun was at the Felicity Fest, which was all about Dance, Red Bull, Repeat”.

From Partners in Research to Partners in Life
After graduating, the couple worked together at Credit Pointe in Pune and married in 2014. Santosh then was part of the Data Science team at startups like Housing.com and Practo. At Practo, he built end-to-end healthcare AI systems and co-authored a workshop paper at COLING 2016.

He later founded Grad Commerce AI Services to merge his expertise in AI and advertising. Back in 2019, he trained 140+ marketers on building no-code AI models—years before it became mainstream.

“In those early days of data science, I was called in as an expert by institutions like BITS Pilani and ed tech platforms like UpGrad, Wildcraft, SimpleCRM, SanjayShenoy.com and BIRetail to build AI products”, Santosh recalled. At Tapchief, a BITS Pilani incubated startup, Santosh was awarded Tap 50 Chiefs 2019-20 for completing a record number of gigs in 2019. 

Meanwhile, at very early stages of LLMs, Mahathi had delivered an in-house fine-tuned model for an Israel client, whose glowing testimonial praised her LLM as being on-par with open-ai for their use-case.  She joined Santosh full-time in 2024 to build Volkano AI.

A Family Rooted in Learning
Mahathi’s family hails from the culturally rich town of Kuchipudi. Her father was a principal in a degree college  and it was her mother, a high school teacher with a passion for maths and physics who moulded her with mental ability enhancing puzzle books.

Following Mahathi’s footsteps is their seven-year-old daughter Ishita, who enjoys dancing and “Seems to have taken the same academic trajectory as we had. In grade one, she cracked the Spell Bee, participated in several international olympiads;  including two levels of a logical exam equivalent to Maths Olympiad, where she topped the first level exam in South India”, the couple expressed.

Stage Fright to Spotlight
Despite once struggling with stage fear, Santosh delivered a widely praised talk on multi-arm bandits at The Fifth Elephant in 2017. Today, he’s a frequent speaker on AI, advertising, and data science.

The duo credits IIIT Hyderabad and their time in SIEL Lab as the spark behind their entrepreneurial journey.

“Volkano AI was born not just out of tech— but out of vision, research, and shared purpose,” says Santosh.

And the journey, it seems, is just heating up.

 May 2025

Ad-ventures in AI: This IIITH Alumni Power-Couple is Giving Ad Creatives a Brain

Volkano AI, co-founded by IIITH alumni Santosh GSK and Mahathi Bhagavatula, was recently featured in YourStory as one of the most promising startups to watch. A new player in the generative AI space, Volkano AI is redefining ad creatives for retail and e-commerce brands with its innovative SaaS platform. In this story, the “IT couple” walk us through their unique journey.

Volkano AI: Where AI Meets Ad Intelligence
“If I’m selling running shoes, should I target college students or sports professionals?”

That’s the kind of question Volkano AI helps answer.

The SaaS platform analyzes Instagram and Facebook ad creatives to identify what elements—colors, copy, hooks—are actually driving engagement. It enables brand marketers to finally see what’s working and why.

“We help advertisers solve core business questions using data, machine learning, and AI,” explain co-founders Santosh and Mahathi. The duo recently launched their future-ready web app at the D2C India x IReC 2025 in Bangalore, presenting their solution to 1000+ delegates and 150+ expert speakers.

Operating out of Hyderabad’s T-Hub incubator, the five-month-old startup already boasts a strong client base. Santosh, identifying the massive untapped opportunity in ad performance optimization, followed Steve Wozniak’s advice: to build extraordinary products, become your own customer. “I became an advertiser to understand the pain points inside out.”

Mahathi, who leads the AI team and drives sales and marketing, brings 11+ years of experience in NLP and AI across diverse industries—from Ayurveda to Finance. Her freelance work with clients in the US, Israel, and India laid the foundation for Volkano’s cutting-edge GenAI capabilities.

Why Ad Creatives Are the Future
In 2021, Apple’s iOS 14 update disrupted Meta’s ad targeting algorithms. Suddenly, platforms like Instagram and Facebook could no longer track user behavior reliably.

“Advertisers realized that targeting wasn’t the lever anymore—creative messaging was. That’s when we pivoted to creatives,” shares Santosh.

Today, brand managers are churning out 200–300 ad creatives per month to keep up. “This volume would’ve been impossible without AI. The entire ad creative pipeline—from analysis to generation—is growing fast,” he adds.

An Unconventional Journey to IIIT Hyderabad
Both Santosh and Mahathi have quirky school stories. While Santosh’s grandfather had to lock him in class to keep him from running away, Mahathi often slept through hers.

Santosh, from Mancherial, was nudged toward IIT after topping his class and discovering a love for math and physics. After scoring an AIR of 1300, he chose IIIT Hyderabad’s dual degree program. “IIITH felt like home. I owe a lot to my mentors—Prof. K Paul, Prof. CV Jawahar, Prof. Vikram Pudi and more importantly our Guide Prof. Vasudeva Varma —who shaped my foundation in machine learning, Information retrieval, Data science and NLP,” he recalls.

In his second year, he developed an NLP-based Nokia mobile app that caught the attention of IIT Bombay researchers. “I was drawn to challenges from early on,” Santosh reflects. “Whether it was physics introduced by a friend or cracking logic puzzles, I loved solving hard problems.”

He published seven international publications at premier conferences.  His blog post on his ICML experience got very good traction.

When Research Sparks Connection
Mahathi entered the master’s program in 2010 and joined SIEL Lab. “What I really liked about our Lab was Prof. Vasudeva Varma ‘s approach to the subject and the industry-oriented research that helped us with excellent career prospects.” she shares.

She worked closely with Santosh on projects related to Telugu entity recognition and NLP, eventually co-authoring international papers with him for CIKM and ACL. In fact, Mahathi received a prestigious scholarship to attend ACL, a milestone that reinforced her path in research. “We aligned on curiosity and long-term goals. That laid the foundation for everything,” says Mahathi.

Felicity, Dance, and Red Bull
“I am a trained Kuchipudi dancer and had won the first prize at Felicity when I was at Muffakham Jah”, reports Mahathi. “During my IIITH days, I was always occupied with cultural activities and Felicity was a very important event in my academic calendar. For one mega dance-drama that attracted a lot of praise, I brought together several Indian dance forms like Mohiniattam, Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam etc and trained my friends and juniors.” 

From origami and organizing events at Felicity to pivoting to coding competitions,  Santosh chimes in, “The greatest fun was at the Felicity Fest, which was all about Dance, Red Bull, Repeat”.

From Partners in Research to Partners in Life
After graduating, the couple worked together at Credit Pointe in Pune and married in 2014. Santosh then was part of the Data Science team at startups like Housing.com and Practo. At Practo, he built end-to-end healthcare AI systems and co-authored a workshop paper at COLING 2016.

He later founded Grad Commerce AI Services to merge his expertise in AI and advertising. Back in 2019, he trained 140+ marketers on building no-code AI models—years before it became mainstream.

“In those early days of data science, I was called in as an expert by institutions like BITS Pilani and ed tech platforms like UpGrad, Wildcraft, SimpleCRM, SanjayShenoy.com and BIRetail to build AI products”, Santosh recalled. At Tapchief, a BITS Pilani incubated startup, Santosh was awarded Tap 50 Chiefs 2019-20 for completing a record number of gigs in 2019. 

Meanwhile, at very early stages of LLMs, Mahathi had delivered an in-house fine-tuned model for an Israel client, whose glowing testimonial praised her LLM as being on-par with open-ai for their use-case.  She joined Santosh full-time in 2024 to build Volkano AI.

A Family Rooted in Learning
Mahathi’s family hails from the culturally rich town of Kuchipudi. Her father was a principal in a degree college  and it was her mother, a high school teacher with a passion for maths and physics who moulded her with mental ability enhancing puzzle books.

Following Mahathi’s footsteps is their seven-year-old daughter Ishita, who enjoys dancing and “Seems to have taken the same academic trajectory as we had. In grade one, she cracked the Spell Bee, participated in several international olympiads;  including two levels of a logical exam equivalent to Maths Olympiad, where she topped the first level exam in South India”, the couple expressed.

Stage Fright to Spotlight
Despite once struggling with stage fear, Santosh delivered a widely praised talk on multi-arm bandits at The Fifth Elephant in 2017. Today, he’s a frequent speaker on AI, advertising, and data science.

The duo credits IIIT Hyderabad and their time in SIEL Lab as the spark behind their entrepreneurial journey.

“Volkano AI was born not just out of tech— but out of vision, research, and shared purpose,” says Santosh.

And the journey, it seems, is just heating up.

 May 2025