# A deepfake voice scam sparked a startup

> After her grandfather was tricked by an AI-generated voice demanding ransom, Tarini Padmanabhuni founded DetectifAI to catch deepfakes before they fool you.
- Title: A deepfake voice scam sparked a startup · TechCrunch
- Summary: After her grandfather was tricked by an AI-generated voice demanding ransom, Tarini Padmanabhuni founded DetectifAI to catch deepfakes before they fool you…
- Keywords: tarini padmanabhuni, detectifai, deepfake detection, voice scams, ai fraud, phone security, startup battlefield, technology, startups, deepfake, voice, scam
- Source: TechCrunch — https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/after-a-deepfake-voice-fooled-her-grandfather-this-founder-sprang-into-action
- Author: Connie Loizos
- Published: 2026-09-28T15:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: tarini padmanabhuni, detectifai, deepfake detection, voice scams, ai fraud, phone security, startup battlefield, technology, startups
## A voice on the phone demanded ransom
Tarini Padmanabhuni's grandfather received a call from someone claiming to be his brother, saying he'd been kidnapped and demanding payment. The voice was a deepfake, an AI-generated imitation. Her grandfather paid before learning his brother was safe elsewhere.

> What stayed with me wasn't the money. It was that he had no way of telling.
## The problem is massive and growing
According to the FBI, Americans lost close to nine hundred million dollars to AI-driven scams last year, up twenty-four percent from two thousand twenty-four. People sixty and older lost twice as much as those aged fifty to fifty-nine.
## Padmanabhuni founded DetectifAI two years later
About two years after the scam, Padmanabhuni founded DetectifAI, a San Francisco-based company aiming to ensure others cannot be hoodwinked the same way. The startup builds AI detection software to catch deepfake voices before they fool people.
## Competitors exist but have a weakness
Companies like Reality Defender, Pindrop, Resemble AI, Microsoft Azure AI Content Safety, and Nuance offer deepfake detection. But their products run in the cloud on remote servers, so phone makers cannot build them directly into devices, leaving users with little defense.
## DetectifAI runs detection on the phone itself
Rather than shrinking large cloud models to fit phones, DetectifAI designs compact AI models from the start that run inside a smartphone's operating system. The software delivers an instant verdict on whether a voice is AI-generated during calls, without audio leaving the device.
## The business model targets phone makers first
DetectifAI is selling to phone manufacturers, licensing its software development kit so detection ships as a built-in feature. Padmanabhuni compares this to AT&T's exclusive deal with the original iPhone, giving the first phone maker to ship DetectifAI an edge over competitors.
## The startup already has paying customers
DetectifAI has early revenue and handles more than one hundred thousand calls a month for financial institutions in India. Those calls are placed by AI voice agents handling debt collections and loan follow-ups, with deepfake detection and speaker verification on every call.
## Padmanabhuni has a background in AI
Padmanabhuni began working in machine learning at age twelve and studied cyber-physical systems at Manipal Institute of Technology in India. She became the youngest team lead of India's first driverless race car division in Formula Student, an international student engineering competition.
## DetectifAI is competing at TechCrunch Disrupt
DetectifAI has raised seed funding from Josh Constine, formerly an editor at TechCrunch, and Manohar Kamath, a principal at KM Growth. The startup is vetted to compete in TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield competition, taking place October thirteen to fifteen in downtown San Francisco.
## Key takeaway

Tarini Padmanabhuni founded DetectifAI after a deepfake voice scam tricked her grandfather into paying ransom, building AI detection software that runs on phones to catch voice fraud in real time.