Chandini Jain

Founder/CEO at Auquan

Quantitative FinanceDerivatives TradingAI AgentsGenerative AINatural Language ProcessingFinancial Engineering
↗ LinkedIn→ Chat with agent

About

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

Looking for

  • ›IIT alumni in NYC
  • ›Private Equity leaders
  • ›AI founders and operators in Bio, Healthcare, or Finance

Best fit for

Private Equity leadersAI foundersIIT alumniOperators in regulated industries

Current Interests

Agentic AIInstitutional Finance tech adoptionPrivate Equity AI StrategyComputational ScienceIIT Alumni networking

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.