Building Loops without VC funding

What happens when a founder who built a billion dollar company during a global crisis steps into the centre of industrial AI and begins reshaping how entire organisations think and work? That question sat at the heart of my conversation with Somya Kapoor, CEO of IFS Loops, recorded live on the show floor at IFS Industrial X Unleashed.

Somya's journey carries a level of grit and perspective that shines through every answer. She shared how surviving the Gulf War as a child shaped her instinct to take on the hardest problems in technology. That mindset not only guided her early career at SAP, ServiceNow, and other enterprise giants, it also laid the foundation for Loops, the agentic platform she co-founded in 2020 with a simple scribble on a notepad that eventually grew into one of the most significant acquisitions in the IFS ecosystem.

Her stories about early rejections, the wave of scepticism around AI in the early days, and the first customer conversations held on Zoom during lockdown reveal the human side behind a platform many now take seriously across the industrial world.

Across the episode, Somya explained in plain terms what makes IFS Loops so different. The platform connects data across systems using natural language, helps redesign processes that used to be locked inside individual applications, and introduces digital workers that remove the grunt work from everyday operations. She brought the technology to life with examples that landed with real clarity. From supplier order handling to complex field service tasks, and the now famous Kodiak Gas case where thousands of hours were saved each year, she showed how agentic workflows change what is possible for industrial companies who have spent decades wrestling with fragmented data and rigid processes.

We also talked about the importance of keeping people at the centre of AI driven change. Somya was clear that amplification, not replacement, is the story that matters. The shift requires new skills, new supervision models, and a thoughtful approach to adoption. Her reflections on change management, the energy she felt from customers at the event, and the speed at which leaders now want to move painted a picture of an industry that feels very different from the early days of AI excitement. The hesitation has faded. Curiosity has taken over. Action is starting to follow.

Somya closed with a message aimed at every leader who might still be watching from the sidelines. The technology is real, adoption is accelerating, and the window to learn, experiment, and adapt is narrowing. She believes this is the moment for teams to decide whether they want to lead or be led by others who are moving faster.

As you listen to this conversation, I'd love to hear what stood out for you. Do you feel the same shift in confidence and urgency around industrial AI that Somya described? Let me know your thoughts.

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