Ashwini Asokan
Founder and CEO of Vue.ai and Mad Street Den
Ashwini Asokan is the co-founder and chief executive of Mad Street Den and its retail AI platform Vue.ai, which provides fashion retailers with automated product tagging, recommendations, visual search and AI-generated model imagery. Based in Chennai, she is one of the most prominent founders of AI companies serving the fashion industry.
| Role | Founder and CEO, Mad Street Den and Vue.ai |
|---|---|
| Founded | Mad Street Den 2014; Vue.ai 2016 |
| Offices | Redwood City and Chennai |
| Series B | 17 million US dollars (2019) |
| Education | MDes Interaction Design, Carnegie Mellon |
Who is Ashwini Asokan?
Ashwini Asokan is a designer turned AI entrepreneur and the founder and chief executive of Mad Street Den, established in 2014, and its retail-focused platform Vue.ai, launched in 2016. She co-founded the company with Anand Chandrasekaran. Mad Street Den has offices in Redwood City, California and Chennai, India, and Vue.ai became one of the best known AI suppliers to online fashion retailers. She is also founder and CEO of Blox.ai.
Career
Asokan studied visual communication at M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women in Chennai and earned a master's degree in interaction design from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005. Her background in design and human-computer interaction informed Vue.ai's focus on making AI usable for merchandising and e-commerce teams.
Mad Street Den raised 1.5 million US dollars in 2015 and Series A funding from Sequoia in 2016. In April 2019 it announced a 17 million dollar Series B round led by Falcon Edge Capital with Global Brain and Sequoia Capital India, bringing total funding to 27 million dollars. Asokan is also an angel investor in start-ups including Murf.ai and Nextbillion.ai, and has spoken at events such as Shoptalk.
Influence on the fashion business
Vue.ai focuses on digitising products and improving retailers' profitability. Its services for fashion retailers include:
- Automated product tagging using computer vision
- Personalised recommendations
- Visual search
- AI-generated models for clothing photography
- An AI styling assistant
Clients named in coverage of the company include Macy's, Diesel, MercadoLibre and Tata. In 2019 Asokan summarised the proposition: "These are solutions that optimize the bottom line for retail companies. We are digitizing products 10X faster than you did before."
Ashwini Asokan and technology
Vue.ai was an early commercial example of computer vision and generative techniques applied to fashion catalogues. Generating images of garments on virtual models and tagging product attributes automatically anticipated many of the generative AI use cases that fashion retailers adopted at scale after 2022.
Why it matters
Asokan's work shows how AI entered fashion through operational problems such as catalogue production, product data and personalisation rather than through design alone. Her company is also a leading example of a global retail AI business built from India.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Ashwini Asokan?
Ashwini Asokan is the co-founder and chief executive of Mad Street Den and its retail AI platform Vue.ai. She trained in visual communication and interaction design before building one of the best known AI companies serving fashion retailers.
What does Vue.ai do?
Vue.ai provides AI tools for online retailers, mainly in fashion, including automated product tagging, personalised recommendations, visual search, AI-generated models for product photography and an AI styling assistant. Named clients have included Macy's and Diesel.