Our Story

Most organisations genuinely care about their people. Yet the support available to employees has barely evolved — a therapy line associated with crisis, a wellness app that gets opened twice, or coaching reserved for the top floor. Meanwhile, the daily reality of working life — the difficult conversations, the confidence that quietly erodes, the personal transitions nobody talks about — continues to shape performance, retention, and culture in ways that never show up in an engagement survey.

Liya exists to change that. To make structured, empathetic coaching available to every employee — not just the ones at the top — so that the small things get caught before they become big ones.

Rooted in research. Powered by AI. Built for every employee.

Liya wasn't built on assumption. It was built on evidence

In 2023, a dedicated team of psychologists, psychometricians, and wellbeing experts came together for eight months to study one question: what are the real challenges employees face at work, and what evidence-based solutions can genuinely improve their wellbeing? That research became the scientific foundation of Liya — the behavioural frameworks, the coaching architecture, and the principles that guide every interaction on the platform.

The result is a platform designed to combine Artificial Intelligence with Emotional Intelligence. Not just responsive — genuinely empathetic. Every conversation informed by people science. Every interaction built to help employees gain clarity, build resilience, and navigate challenges with real rigour behind every word.

Our Founder

Sunil is a seasoned HR leader turned founder, with experience building and scaling people functions at some of the world's most recognised organisations — LinkedIn, Yahoo!, GE Digital, Flipkart, and Oracle. Sitting at the intersection of high performance and human cost, he watched firsthand how stress, unspoken struggles, and a lack of accessible support quietly eroded the best people in the best teams.

That observation became a conviction — and the conviction became Liya.

A Certified Wellbeing and Life Coach, Sunil founded Liya.ai™ in 2023 to democratise coaching for every employee, not just the privileged few. His belief is simple: seeking support should be as natural as asking a question.

— Sunil D’Cruz Harry
Founder & CEO, Liya.Ai

Meet Sunil 1:1

Why Liya?

The name carries a personal story. Across two decades working at some of the world's most recognised companies, two stood out where Sunil felt truly valued, heard, and able to be himself — LinkedIn and Yahoo! When it came time to build something of his own, he wanted the name to quietly carry that gratitude. Liya is a blend of the first two letters of each — Li from LinkedIn, Ya from Yahoo! — a small tribute to the organisations that shaped his best years and ultimately inspired him to build something that gives every employee that same feeling of being genuinely supported.

Our Strategic Advisor

Vibhav is a seasoned entrepreneur, angel investor, and enterprise technology leader with over three decades of experience building and scaling products at companies including Stryker, HP, SAP Business Objects, and Novell. As Founder CEO of CloudByte — a storage technology startup — he led the company from concept through three rounds of VC and angel funding. A TiE Charter Member since 2011 and active mentor to early-stage founders, Vibhav has guided dozens of entrepreneurs from idea to Series A.

He brings to Liya deep expertise in product strategy, enterprise go-to-market, and the specific challenges of scaling a technology venture from early pilots to enterprise adoption — advising the platform as it enters its next phase of growth.

— Srivibhavan (Vibhav) Balaram
Strategic Advisor

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Our Core values

People Before Platform

Every decision starts with one question: does this make the employee feel safer, more capable, and more heard? Technology serves people — never the other way around.

Science Meets Empathy

Our coaching is built on evidence-based behavioural frameworks — because real support needs both rigour and warmth. AI brings the intelligence. Empathy makes it human.

Democratise Coaching

Executive coaching was never meant to be a privilege. We're changing that — bringing structured, personalised coaching to every employee, at every level, every day.

In the Moment, Not After the Fact

The best support arrives before the crisis. We're built for the micro-moments — the daily triggers where a coaching conversation can change the entire trajectory of someone's day.

Trust is the Product

What employees share with Liya stays with them. No individual data ever reaches the employer. We can only work if employees feel completely safe — and we take that seriously.

AI + Human, Always

AI gives us scale. Human coaches and therapists give us depth. Neither alone is enough. The best outcome for every employee is when both work together.