14 September 2026 Data and analytics Issue 9
Julius turned a Y Combinator pivot into an analyst you talk to
Rahul Sonwalkar built a data analyst that writes and runs its own code from a plain-language question. By July 2025 it had two million users and a $10 million seed round led by Bessemer.
What it does
You give Julius a spreadsheet or a database and ask a question the way you would ask a colleague. It writes the analysis code, runs it, and hands back charts and a summary, with predictive modelling when the question calls for it.1
The company counts more than 10 million visualizations produced so far.1 Harvard Business School uses a version adapted for its course Data Science and AI for Leaders, after professor Iavor Bojinov asked for changes to fit the class.1, 3
Our listing here, written in August 2026, records a free plan of 15 messages a month, paid plans from $20 a month, a $45 tier without message caps, a $450 business tier with seats and database connectors, and a 50 percent discount for students and educators.2 Prices move; the pricing page at julius.ai is the current word.
You can talk to the AI like you would talk to an analyst on your team, and the AI, like a human, would go run the code and do the analysis for you.
Rahul Sonwalkar, Julius founder, to TechCrunch, July 2025 1
Who is building it
Rahul Sonwalkar launched Julius after graduating from Y Combinator in 2022, pivoting away from the logistics startup he had been building during the programme.1 Before that he was briefly famous for something else: the 2022 stunt in which he posed as a freshly laid-off Twitter engineer under the name Rahul Ligma.1
The seed round, announced in July 2025, was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with Horizon VC, 8VC, Y Combinator and the AI Grant accelerator, and angels including Aravind Srinivas of Perplexity, Guillermo Rauch of Vercel and Jeff Lawson, Twilio's co-founder.1
A profile in AI Insider in May 2025 described the company as a 12-person team and Sonwalkar as a former Uber engineer.3
Where they are
The public numbers are from the funding announcement: more than 2 million users and the $10 million seed.1 Revenue is not disclosed in anything we read, and we do not repeat figures we could not source.
The product is priced for individuals first and teams second, which matches the founder's own account of the strategy. Focus on one use case, he told TechCrunch, is what matters.1
Why it is on AXIS Launch
Julius is what a narrow, well-chosen use case looks like when it works: one job, a spreadsheet question answered, sold to the person who has the spreadsheet. Most of the apps submitted here would do better to pick a job that small.
It is also a study in stage. A seed round, two million users and a price list is a business with a shape a buyer can read; the missing line is revenue, and that is the line this directory exists to help makers make verifiable.
The listing is unclaimed. If you work at Julius and want to add to it or correct it, the listing page says how.
Sources
- AI data analyst startup Julius nabs $10M seed round TechCrunch, Marina Temkin, 28 July 2025. Accessed 12 September 2026.
- Julius on AXIS Launch: the listing, with pricing as recorded on 20 August 2026 AXIS Launch, 20 August 2026. Accessed 12 September 2026.
- From Viral Prank to AI Pioneer: Rahul Sonwalkar's Julius Aims to Democratize Data Science AI Insider, James Dargan, 21 May 2025. Accessed 12 September 2026.