Abhay Kalra
| Abhay Kalra | |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, software engineer |
|---|---|
| Known for | Founder of Avent (AI agents for industrial commerce) |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) |
Abhay Kalra is an Indian-American entrepreneur and software engineer who founded Avent, a startup building artificial intelligence agents for industrial commerce. The company joined Y Combinator's Summer 2025 batch and provides AI-driven automation tools for manufacturers and industrial distributors to streamline quoting, order entry, and inbox management.[1]
Early life and education
Growing up, Kalra worked in his family's electrical and industrial distribution business in India. He watched administrative tasks pile up, eating into his team's time and blocking growth. The inside sales staff spent their days processing orders instead of chasing new business. Later, he studied electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.[2]
Career
Kalra's experience at the family business shaped everything about Avent. He'd seen the same problem over and over. Growth hit a wall whenever you tried to scale. You'd hire new salespeople, but existing staff were buried in order processing and couldn't train them properly. The real issue was clear once you looked at it: inside sales teams spent most of their hours on repetitive administrative work, not on bringing in revenue. That's what Avent set out to fix.[3]
The platform uses AI agents to automate core sales operations for manufacturers and industrial distributors. It manages sales inboxes, builds quotes using historical pricing data and what the company knows about each client, and keeps records in existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The platform integrates with major ERP systems including Epicor, Oracle NetSuite, and SAP, working alongside what's already there rather than tearing it out and starting over.[4]
The technology's built in layers. A data layer pulls information from ERP, CRM, and product catalog systems. An integration layer connects those systems through application programming interfaces (APIs). A knowledge layer captures business rules and pricing logic specific to each customer's setup. An action layer uses that knowledge to generate quotes and process orders automatically. An intelligence layer handles document understanding and AI-driven reasoning across everything.[5]
The company was founded in 2025 and launched on August 14, 2025, with backing from Y Combinator as part of the Summer 2025 cohort. Kalra is the sole founder.[6] The mission is straightforward: free industrial sales teams to do what they're actually good at—building relationships, developing business—by handing off the routine transactional work to AI. This lets distributors grow revenue without hiring at the same rate.[7]
References
- ↑ "Avent – Y Combinator". 'Y Combinator}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Second Generation Distributor Creates AI Sales Rep Startup". 'Modern Distribution Management}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Second Generation Distributor Creates AI Sales Rep Startup". 'Modern Distribution Management}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Avent – Transform Industrial Commerce with AI". 'Avent}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Avent – Transform Industrial Commerce with AI". 'Avent}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Avent – Y Combinator". 'Y Combinator}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Second Generation Distributor Creates AI Sales Rep Startup". 'Modern Distribution Management}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.