Chandini Jain
Founder/CEO at Auquan
Moving AI from impressive demos to messy, high-stakes production environments within regulated industries.
Intro
I'm Chandini Jain, the Founder and CEO of Auquan. My background is rooted in the high-stakes world of quantitative finance, having spent years as a derivatives trader at Optiver and an analyst at Deutsche Bank. Today, I'm focused on moving AI beyond simple chatbots and into the realm of 'agentic' systems that own end-to-end workflows for private equity and investment banking. I'm passionate about the transition from AI-generated text to real, structured execution—what I call 'agent-native' work. I love connecting with fellow IIT alumni in NYC, AI founders, and leaders in regulated industries who are looking to move past the hype and implement AI in messy, high-stakes production environments. If you're interested in how technology actually changes the unit economics of institutional finance, I'd love to chat.
Networking
What I can offer
- ›Practical clarity on AI strategy for Private Equity firms
- ›Expertise in building agentic systems for regulated workflows
- ›Deep domain knowledge in quantitative finance and derivatives
What I'm looking for
- ›IIT alumni in NYC
- ›Private Equity leaders
- ›AI founders and operators in Bio, Healthcare, or Finance
Best fit for
Focus
Current interests
Core competencies
Background
Career
Began as an analyst at Deutsche Bank, transitioned into high-frequency derivatives trading at Optiver in Chicago and Amsterdam, and eventually founded Auquan to build AI agents for finance.
Education
MS in Mechanical Engineering/Computational Science from UIUC (2012–2013); B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur (2006–2010).
Achievements
- ›Founded Auquan, building AI agents for high-stakes financial workflows.
- ›Designed a new beta index at Deutsche Bank to exploit forward rate bias.
- ›Reduced underwater robot vehicle weight by 30% through IPMC modeling.
- ›Appointed Mentor for Fintech and Data Science at USC Incubator.
Opinions
- Chat is a seductive 'cheat code' that hides product boundaries; real value is structured execution.
- Work is only 'agent-native' if it produces a real artifact rather than just AI-generated text.
- Institutional finance adopts tech only when the status quo is more expensive than the alternative, not based on hype.
- AI products fail when they focus on repetitive tasks instead of the clean handoff between human intent and machine execution.
Personality
Communication style
Analytical, provocative, and operator-focused with direct, punchy sentences.
Formality — 7/10
Vocabulary