Mantis went live in September 2026. As of 11 November, more than 900 people have signed up, they have unlocked 13,271 leads, and 85 partner applications have come in without us asking for a single one.
Today we are starting a new chapter: Mantis has joined NVIDIA Inception, NVIDIA's program for startups. This post covers what we have built so far, what the program gives its members, and the part we are most excited about: where Mantis goes next, which is outreach that runs end to end, all the way to a booked meeting.
I'm Tarun, founder of Mantis. Let's get into it.
What we've built so far
Mantis finds clients that match your ICP and reaches out to them. You tell Mantis what you sell, and its agents work out who your ideal customer is, pick the data sources and buying signals, find the businesses showing those signals right now, enrich the contacts, and run the outreach with follow-ups.
Describe your customer in plain words
"Funded SaaS startups in Bangalore hiring sales reps" or "manufacturers in Ludhiana with no proper website" is a complete brief.
Mantis plans the search
It looks across maps, company websites, web search and public registries, and keeps only companies that fit your ICP and are the right size for you.
Every lead comes with a reason
No website, a dead website, poor reviews, hiring, or new funding.
Contacts that reach a person
Website, verified emails, phone, company LinkedIn and decision makers where public.
Outreach you approve
Mantis drafts a personal first message for every lead, you approve it, and it sends and follows up from your own mailbox or ours. Paid plans include bulk email campaigns, bulk AI voice calls and an auto campaign planner.
It learns from outcomes
Every run is logged with its ICP, strategy, pipeline and outcome, so the next run starts from what worked.
Because the search runs live over maps and the web, Mantis finds the businesses bought databases miss, including the ones with no website at all.
The milestones so far
| When | Milestone |
|---|---|
| September 2026 | Mantis goes live |
| 14 Sep to 26 Oct signup weeks | First-week activation climbs from 26% to 54% |
| 25 October 2026 | Product demo published |
| 11 November 2026 | 910 registered users and 13,271 leads unlocked |
| 11 November 2026 | Mantis announces it is a member of NVIDIA Inception |
Source: Mantis live numbers page (production database), 11 November 2026
Why NVIDIA Inception, why now
NVIDIA describes Inception as "a free program that guides AI startups through the NVIDIA platform and ecosystem". It has no application fees, membership fees or equity requirements, so to be clear: NVIDIA has not invested in Mantis, and we are still bootstrapped.
Here is what the program offers members, in NVIDIA's own words, and what we plan to do with each part:
| What members get (NVIDIA's words) | What we will use it for |
|---|---|
| "free self-paced technical courses and discounted expert-led workshops" | Sharper agent engineering for a two-founder team |
| "free cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners" | More compute for searches, site reads and calls, if we are granted them |
| "preferred pricing on NVIDIA hardware and software" | Keeping the cost of every search low |
| exposure to "NVIDIA's extensive VC network through Inception Capital Connect (based on eligibility)" | A wider network as we grow (eligibility-based, nothing promised) |
Source: NVIDIA Inception page, nvidia.com/en-us/startups
Members request these benefits through the program. Joining gives us access to them; it is not a grant, an investment or an endorsement.
Why now? Because the next phase is heavier. Finding a lead is one agent run. Running a whole campaign means planning a sequence, sending every touch, reading every reply and placing calls, for every lead, every day. Yashraj, our CTO, owns the agent pipeline, and training plus program resources are exactly what a small team needs to build that well.
What's next: outreach that ends in a booked meeting
Our goal has always been the whole path from "who should we sell to" to a call on your calendar. Here is what we are building to close that loop. These are in progress, not shipped, and we are not putting dates on them.
Search straight into a campaign
The leads a search finds become an editable multi-touch campaign in the same run.
A planner that writes the whole sequence
It reads your list, your business profile and your connected senders, and returns every touch with its channel, wait and message, shown on a visual node canvas with a "Replied?" branch after each step.
Email, then WhatsApp, then a call
Multi-touch sequences across all three channels. Bulk WhatsApp campaigns are coming soon, and WhatsApp comes after a reply or opt-in, never as the first message to a stranger.
Sending capacity from day one
Pre-warmed Mantis inboxes and WhatsApp numbers, next to your own Gmail or SMTP mailbox.
One inbox for every reply
Replies on any channel land in one place, sorted from auto-replies, and a reply stops that lead's sequence.
An AI voice agent that books the meeting
Each call has a goal, such as "Book a 15-minute follow-up call", and a booked call is recorded with the day, the time and the person. A booking stops the rest of that lead's sequence, and "meeting" becomes a campaign goal you can pick.
Into your CRM
Connectors for HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive, Sheets, Zapier and webhooks.
Smarter with every send
Once 50+ real sends exist, Mantis re-weights buying signals by the replies they actually earn, and new signals arrive from public ad libraries and open government data.
Some rules do not change as outreach gets more automatic:
A note from the founder
Yashraj and I have built products together for five years. Before Mantis we ran a tech-services agency, Gigzman, and finding clients was always harder than doing the work. Lists told us who exists, not who needs us. So we built our own system to find businesses with a reason to buy and contact them. It worked for us, other agencies asked for it, and it became Mantis.
The hard part of outbound is not data; it is knowing which customer, signal and channel works for this specific company. That only comes from outcomes, so Mantis runs the workflow itself and keeps the results.
Tarun Kumar, founder of Mantis
That is why the next phase matters so much to us. Every booked meeting is an outcome Mantis can learn from, and every one makes the next campaign better. We are a small team in Gurugram, both founders full-time, and we have never been more excited about what we are shipping.
See Mantis in action
The product demo shows Mantis finding clients and running outreach, in about eight minutes.
Try Mantis today
Describe the customer you want, and watch Mantis find them and start the conversation. 500 free credits once at signup, no card. New to outbound? Start with our guide on how to find clients.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mantis owned, funded or endorsed by NVIDIA?
No. Mantis is a member of NVIDIA Inception, NVIDIA's program for startups. The program has no equity requirements, and Mantis is bootstrapped.
When will end-to-end outreach and meeting booking be available?
We are building it now and will announce each piece as it ships. We are not giving dates. Email campaigns, AI voice calls and the auto campaign planner are already on the paid plans.
Does anything change for current Mantis users?
Nothing in how you use Mantis today. What changes is how fast new outreach features arrive.
Who is Mantis for?
B2B companies, startups, SaaS teams, MSMEs, agencies and service businesses: anyone who sells to other businesses and wants booked calls instead of a stale list.
What is NVIDIA Inception?
In NVIDIA's words, "a free program that guides AI startups through the NVIDIA platform and ecosystem". Read more on [NVIDIA's Inception page](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/startups/).
