Nava raises $22m to plug Asia’s AI compute gap

Nava, a cloud infrastructure startup formerly known as Kluisz, has raised US$22 million in a series A round led by Greenoaks Capital. Participating investors included RTP Global and Unicorn India Ventures.

The India-based company is setting up its regional headquarters in Singapore as it expands across Asia Pacific.

Nava co-founders (from left) Abhijeet Singh, Vamshidhar Reddy, and Abhinav Sinha / Photo credit: Nava

Nava, which means “new” or “fresh” in Sanskrit, is building a new kind of cloud infrastructure designed specifically for AI workloads.

Founded in 2025, the firm is developing what it calls a “full-stack neo-cloud” platform. It combines AI data centers, GPU compute infrastructure, and software tools to help companies build and run AI applications more efficiently, co-founder and CEO Abhinav Sinha tells Tech in Asia.

Apart from Sinha, who was global COO at hospitality chain Oyo, Nava’s other co-founders are former McKinsey partner Vamshidhar Reddy and ex-Reliance Jio executive Abhijeet Singh.

Sinha points out that the AI era needs a very different infrastructure, from GPUs and data center design to cooling systems and network architecture.

“We are building that entire stack end-to-end,” he says.

Unlike traditional cloud platforms that rely on general purpose infrastructure, Nava is taking a vertically integrated approach. It plans to construct and operate AI-optimized data centers, build GPU clusters, and develop software layers to help enterprises run AI applications more efficiently.

The company also plans to partner with global players such as Nvidia to access their GPU infrastructure.

Nava will use the fresh capital to hire talent, expand infrastructure, and build out its full-stack AI compute platform. The firm plans to scale to over 1 gigawatt of compute capacity across India and Southeast Asia over the next five years as it aims to become one of the top three AI infrastructure players in the region.

Betting on the AI gap in SEA

Southeast Asia and nearby regions are central to Nava’s growth strategy. The company targets markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea, where the supply of AI infrastructure remains limited despite the rising demand.

Nava is positioning itself as an alternative to global cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. Sinha argues that there’s a significant gap in compute availability, especially in emerging markets.

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