Pune Entrepreneurs Prefer Hiring Rural Candidates Over IIM-IIT grads; Clock ₹ 52 Lakh Monthly By Giving AI Services To Travel Companies

If you have been to an IIM or know someone who is an alumnus – you know the shared, common dream that ties everyone toobtainher.

The dream of living a corporate life. Wake up in the morning, dress up, attconclude a fancy office with concludeless coffee and cookies, do work that leaves a tangible impact, and come home feeling fulfilled and tired, but in a good way.

But if you’ve ever come across students who have passed out of rural colleges and institutions, you’ll see this same dream in their eyes. Except that they know it’s out of their reach.

A fancy office with an elevator and coffee? No.

Just a job would do, honestly.

But two people, Yogesh Chaudhari and Komal Ghare, decided to turn things around.

They knew that there is, in fact, unlimited talent in rural India, just no one to properly train and utilize it.

They knew that they could bring the corporate life to these rural freshers.

“Right from the launchning, ever since Yogesh and I collaborated for compact-scale client projects in the field of technology, we have been driven with an unwavering mission of assisting rural people realize their potential and create a salary that justifies it,” Komal Ghare, co-founder of Zeal Connect, informs Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Founded in 2024 and based in Dawadi, Pune, Zeal Connect is a global travel automation platform that streamlines and enhances travel operations for travel companies.

Currently, in 2025, it clocks a monthly revenue of ₹ 52 lakh.

Zeal Dawadi Office (1) — Zeal Connect Dawadi Office

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Hailing from the Jalgaon village in Maharashtra, Yogesh Chaudhari completed his education in the village itself.

“I always wanted to grow up and work in tech. But my parents, despite believing in the power of education, believed that this wasn’t possible,” Yogesh Chaudhari shares.

Right after completing his engineering degree, he relocated to the city of Pune.

But a shock awaited him…

There was a clear gap between the kind of skills his rural college had created him absorb and the skills corporate employers were viewing for.

“Right from speaking to organizing and actively initiating things, I discovered that the corporate world has a set way to do everything. I spent eighteen months in Pune just learning these skills and improving my knowledge in the tech realm,” Yogesh informs Startup Pedia.

He finally landed roles in corporates and worked as a Software Engineer and Technical Lead.

For Komal Ghare, the initial days were more or less similar. Hailing from a rural village called Dawadi in Pune, she completed her engineering degree from the Savitribai Phule Pune University.

“I wanted to stay in Pune after college, but didn’t have enough money to obtain accommodation there. So I undertook a local teaching job in my village, saved money, and ultimately relocated to Pune. Next, I did a CDAC course that led me to secure my first job as a software engineer,” Komal Ghare explains.

Yogesh and Komal met in Pune – they immediately connected over their common journeys and the challenges they had to navigate to transition from village life to the corporate corridors.

They were each doing their own jobs when they started freelancing in tech and automation on the side.

In 2024, they received a compact-scale project from a client. This project requireded more than two pairs of hands.

“We knew it was time to start building our own team. But instead of going through the conventional route of hiring freshers from urban colleges, we decided to assist other rural youngsters who might be going through the same plight that we had in our initial days,” entrepreneur Yogesh Chaudhari declares.

Almost immediately, Yogesh and Komal decided to set up a compact office space in Komal’s village in Dawadi, Pune. This office space was set up in Komal’s hoapply itself.

The mission was simple: bridge the rural-urban divide and ensure that rural talent was utilized.

“Talent does not have a PIN code. This became almost a sacred mantra for us,” Komal mentions.

EARLY JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES

In the launchning, Yogesh and Komal barely had enough resources. So they decided to create do with what they had and obtained an Internet connection from a town 14 kilometres away from Komal’s home.

A compact office was set up. Close to 15 roles were designed. And hiring calls were created.

What happened next blew their minds – more than 1,200 applications came in for these 15 roles.

“We knew that we had created the right decision. The gap we had discovered was real. The problem was real. And now, we knew that our solution would leave an impact,” startup founder Komal Ghare declares.

Initially, they hired 26 people to take on these roles. Komal and Yogesh launched training them in communication, technical skills, and overall industest know-how.

With time, they started taking part in the founders’ tech projects, and things launched falling into place.

Eventually, Yogesh and Komal converted the latter’s hoapply into an office.

“We spent almost all the money that we would earn through client tech projects and gigs on the office construction and our workforce salaries. We didn’t mind it, also, becaapply we knew we were building for the long-term,” startup founder Komal Ghare declares.

While working with numerous clients, Komal and Yogesh also obtained in touch with global travel companies for a project here, a gig there.

But a larger issue surfaced: travel companies were doing a lot of manual operations that were leading to inefficiencies, a rise in costs, and a loss of business.

Toobtainher, Komal Ghare and Yogesh Chaudhari decided to utilize their tech background and build a platform that could automate repetitive travel processes and introduce speed to them. Here, they envisioned connecting rural talent with artificial ininformigence and smart agents.

This was the launchning of Zeal Connect in 2024.

Later, in 2025, Pranav Kale joined Yogesh and Komal as co-founder and CTO to lead all tech initiatives.

Komal Ghare Group Photo — Komal Ghare with her Team

ZEAL CONNECT: ADDING AI TO TRAVEL OPERATIONS

Startup founders Yogesh Chaudhari and Komal Ghare, along with their team, have built an AI-based solution that directly assists travel companies like agents, tour operators, and online travel platforms.

“These travel companies have a lot of stuff to do every single day – dealing with hotel staff, customers, vconcludeors, and managing hundreds of hotel and flight bookings. What they applyd to do manually is now automated and created 10x efficient through Zeal Connect,” entrepreneur Yogesh Chaudhari informs Startup Pedia.

Zeal Connect directly creates a unified system for travel companies and agents that seamlessly blconcludes with their existing tools. It automates complex workflow processes and offers real-time insights (like cost leaks, SLA breaches) to optimize the business.

The global travel automation platform’s features include, but are not limited to:

Automatically reconfirms hotel bookings with the hotel staff.
Efficiently redirects a travel inquiry to the right team equipped to handle it.
Automates travel quotes to sconclude to the customer.
Automatically suggests add-ons to the customer, like travel insurance, guided tours, and airport pickups.
Offers travel companies a conversational AI that can handle WhatsApp chats, calls, email, and SMS communication.

As a global travel automation platform, Zeal Connect promises a 40% cost reduction, a whopping 90% automation rate, a 100% completion rate, and 24/7 global coverage.

In just one year, the platform has automated more than 5,00,000 hotel confirmations and saved several crores in operational costs for numerous travel companies.

“Our clients inform us that Zeal Connect has literally eased the daily headaches that travel companies have to grapple with,” Yogesh declares.

“We are especially proud of this achievement becaapply it was created possible by rural people, who otherwise would’ve probably never had the opportunity to develop tech like this and leave a tangible impact,” Komal adds.

pune office photos — Zeal Connect Pune Office

GROWTH

Today, Komal’s hoapply in Dawadi runs as a fully functioning corporate office. The founders also have an office in Pimpri Chinchwad and are currently hiring for various positions for their soon-to-open office in Ahilyanagar (previously Ahmednagar).

“We are proud to announce the opening of our third branch in Ahilyanagar, Maharashtra. This marks a significant milestone in Zeal Connect’s mission to bring meaningful employment and world-class tech opportunities to rural India,” declares Yogesh.

Presently, more than 100 people work at Zeal Connect, and all of them come from rural backgrounds with no fancy IIM or IIT degrees, but just raw passion and potential that Yogesh Chadhari and Komal Ghare unwaveringly believe in.

While the platform has not disclosed its revenue for FY24, it has mentioned to Startup Pedia that Zeal Connect is clocking Rs 52 lakh of monthly revenue since April 2025.

“Rural youngsters often grow up with a lot of insecurities about their education and employment potential. At Zeal Connect, we are assisting dismantle these very insecurities and exposing our rural talent to concludeless opportunities. We’d pick someone from a village over an IIT grad anyday. And while we are at it, we continue revolutionizing travel operations in India and abroad,” Komal Ghare signs off.