Ajay Bulusu sold NextBillion.ai after a two-year process, and his verdict on cross-border M&A is blunt: 99% of attempts fail, and the founders who never sell are usually stopped by greed rather than by the market. He tells Jeremy Au why 2021 SaaS valuations stopped being fundable the moment ChatGPT arrived, why he picked a number before he started and walked the day he hit it, and why age not coming back mattered more than the last dollar. Then he explains why he started again immediately. After losing his father to a side effect of his cancer treatment, and his mother to a stage four diagnosis a colonoscopy would have caught, he spent eighteen months on his own money building what became 150, a precision health company that reads epigenetics, gut and blood to tell you how each of your organs is ageing.
Ajay Bulusu is a technologist, entrepreneur, and founder building at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data, and human health. He is the Co-founder of 150, a next-generation human health and longevity company building an intelligence layer for health — bringing together diagnostics, biomarkers, wearable data, nutrition, and AI to help people predict, prevent, and optimize their health over a lifetime.
Prior to 150, Ajay was the Founder and CEO of NextBillion.ai, a Singapore-based deep-tech company pioneering AI-powered mapping, spatial data, and routing infrastructure for global enterprises. The company was acquired by Velocitor Solutions in 2025. Earlier, Ajay was a founding leader of the Geo organization at Grab and held leadership roles at Google, Indeed, and American Express. Having built technology and companies across Asia, Europe, and North America, Ajay brings a global perspective to building ambitious, category-defining businesses and applying technology to some of the world's most complex problems.
Ajay’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajaybulusu
150: https://150.fit
Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/ajay-bulusu-150-health
BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia.
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00:00 Introduction
01:13 From Hyderabad to Google, Grab and NextBillion.ai
03:20 Deciding to sell: the SaaS peak and ChatGPT
04:42 Why 99% of M&A fails
06:44 Losing his father, and his mother's diagnosis
09:12 Why the company is called 150
10:45 Doctor 3.0 and the WhatsApp agent
12:39 Precision medicine, not longevity
16:59 Who buys preventive health, and does insurance pay
22:38 The real barrier is the mind, not the money
28:52 Five doctors per patient, and India's specialist gap
32:15 Supplements and the anti-anxiety band
38:48 Men, women, hormones and taboos
40:48 What being brave means
