Anupama Venugopalan

Experience

My career journey

My career has moved across banking, entrepreneurship and technology. Each chapter has changed how I understand organisations, customers and the role that data and technology can play in making better decisions.

Rydlme

AI Implementation Specialist

DenmarkCurrent

Rydlme welcome screen with sign up and login options.
Rydlme mobile app showing a riddle before the answer is revealed.
Rydlme mobile app showing the answer to a riddle.
Abstract glowing orb representing the Rydlme voice AI prototype direction.

The app

Rydlme is a social entertainment app built around jokes, riddles and playful interaction. Users can browse content, guess answers and reveal solutions through a simple swipe-based experience designed for quick moments of fun.

Why I joined

I joined Rydlme to explore where AI could add meaningful value to the app. The goal was not simply to introduce AI as a feature, but to understand how it could make the experience more engaging and interactive for users.

Changing the direction

Our initial direction focused on using AI to generate jokes and riddles. Through experimentation, we found that the generated content often lacked context, semantic maturity and the qualities that make humour feel natural. Based on these findings, we decided not to continue with that direction.

We shifted our focus towards an interactive voice AI experience. This creates an opportunity for users to engage with the app through conversation rather than only consuming generated content.

Work in progress

The voice experience is currently in the prototyping stage. The fourth image on the left is a visual indication of the voice experience currently being prototyped. I am keeping the working interface and early prototype private while we continue testing and refining the experience.

If you are interested in the thinking behind the prototype or would like to see an early version, let us connect.

What this experience is developing: AI product discovery · Voice AI · Prototyping · Business analysis · User experience · Responsible AI · Cross-functional collaboration

The Lush Box

Co-founder and Business Innovation Lead

Denmark2021 to 2025

The Lush Box founders with stacked shipping boxes ready for dispatch.
The Lush Box product or fulfilment photo 1.
The Lush Box product or fulfilment photo 2.
The Lush Box product or fulfilment photo 3.
The Lush Box product or fulfilment photo 4.

After moving to Denmark, I co-founded The Lush Box, a bootstrapped corporate gifting business. We delivered more than 500 curated gift boxes in our first year and went on to serve more than ten corporate clients and ship gifts to 33 countries.

I helped develop our e-commerce model, monitored sales and margins, and compared the value and operational effort behind individual and corporate orders. The findings helped us focus more deliberately on the stronger corporate gifting opportunity.

I worked directly with clients to turn loosely defined needs into practical proposals, covering product selection, quotations, pricing, suppliers, inventory and delivery. We partnered with Danish entrepreneurs, included locally produced products where possible and reduced unnecessary single-use materials.

The experience taught me to connect customer needs, commercial judgement, data and execution, including knowing when an idea was not worth pursuing.

What this experience developed: Entrepreneurship · Customer discovery · Commercial analysis · E-commerce · Pricing · Supplier management · Sustainable sourcing · International delivery

Federal Bank

Treasury, Corporate Credit and Branch Leadership

India2008 to 2016

I began my career at Federal Bank after completing my bachelor's degree in Statistics. Over eight years, I moved through treasury operations, corporate banking and retail branch leadership, gaining a view of banking from the controls behind a transaction to customer and commercial decisions.

Treasury and liquidity: I worked with payments, reconciliations, bond and money market transactions, liquidity monitoring and regulatory reserve processes. The work demanded accuracy, timing and strong operational control.

Corporate credit: I met clients to understand working capital needs, reviewed financial performance and repayment capacity, and prepared structured credit proposals. I also monitored a lending portfolio of approximately ₹500 million, approximately DKK 33.8 million, balancing commercial opportunity with responsible risk assessment.

Branch leadership: I led a small team across deposits, lending, customer service, compliance and reporting. I helped grow a new branch from zero to approximately ₹200 million, approximately DKK 13.5 million, in business within its first year. My Excel reporting tracked activity across a portfolio of around ₹1.5 billion, approximately DKK 101.5 million, for stakeholders at branch, regional and Head Office levels.

What this experience developed: Banking operations · Credit and risk analysis · Commercial growth · Process control · Team leadership · Performance reporting · Change adoption