New Delhi : UPES Runway, the startup incubator at UPES, announced an investment of ₹25 lakh through equity participation in Reagvis Labs, a deep-tech startup developing indigenous artificial intelligence solutions for digital trust, including deepfake detection, document forgery detection, digital identity verification and digital content authentication. The investment is part of UPES Runway’s initiative to identify and support promising AI-native and AI-driven ventures through capital, mentorship and access to the wider startup and investor ecosystem.
Founded in 2025 by Dr. Sachin Chaudhary and Dr. Praful Hambarde, Reagvis Labs grew out of an academic collaboration between the two researchers during their PhD journey. Working in artificial intelligence and computer vision, the founders witnessed the emerging challenges around the misuse of generative AI to create deepfakes, forged documents, synthetic identities and misleading digital content. Reagvis Labs was created to address challenges such as deepfakes, forged documents and synthetic identities, with capabilities spanning media manipulation detection, identity and content verification, and KYC across image, video and audio, by building AI-led technologies that strengthen trust in the digital ecosystem.
Rahul Nainwal, CEO, Runway Incubator and Dean, School of Business, UPES, said, “The next phase of AI innovation will not only be about what artificial intelligence can create, but also about whether we can trust what it creates. Reagvis Labs is working on a problem that will become increasingly important as synthetic content becomes more sophisticated and widespread. Through The Pitch, our objective is to identify such AI-led ventures with strong technology depth and meaningful real-world applications and give founders the capital and ecosystem support they need to build and scale.”
Dr. Sachin Chaudhary, Co-founder, Reagvis Labs, said, “Reagvis began with our belief that trust must become a fundamental layer of the AI-powered digital world. As generative technologies grow more powerful, the ability to distinguish authentic content from manipulated or synthetic content will become increasingly important for businesses, governments and individuals. The investment and support from UPES Runway will help us strengthen our technology, accelerate development and take our digital-trust solutions to a wider set of real-world applications.”
Through The Pitch 3.0, UPES Runway plans to support 10 innovators this year, with an investment of around ₹25 lakh per startup, and the potential for higher investment in exceptional AI-led ventures, subject to evaluation and approval. Pitch 3.0 recently concluded its Delhi leg, which attracted more than 20 applications and brought seven shortlisted startups before investors, mentors and UPES leaders. The ventures represented a wide range of sectors, including AI image recognition, fintech, edtech, disaster management, fleet technology, quantum computing and deep tech, reflecting the breadth of AI-led innovation emerging from India’s startup ecosystem. Startups – Arthik AI, StoreLink and Memintel were shortlisted in the Delhi round. The next leg of The Pitch is being planned in Bengaluru, as UPES Runway continues to identify and invest in niche AI businesses across different markets.
Through the Runway Incubator, UPES is also advancing its larger vision as an AI-first university, connecting academic and technological capabilities with entrepreneurship, funding and market opportunities. The initiative seeks to enable founders to take AI-led solutions beyond the laboratory or prototype stage and build ventures capable of addressing emerging industry and societal challenges.
Launched in 2021, Runway has grown into a platform for entrepreneurial development at UPES. In about five years, more than 200 startups have been incubated through Runway in association with DST-TIBI, MeitY, Shell E4, MaXcel Accelerator and Global University Systems.
