In this exclusive interaction with StartupTalky, Mr. Tapan Sangal, the founder of MAI Labs, shares about his passion for technology which can make a fair digital world. Inspired by the potential of decentralization, Mr. Sangal shares how MAI Labs is breaking down barriers through its innovative KALP blockchain platform and the revolutionary MY IPR tool for managing intellectual property. He shared his opinions on blockchain & AI, where in the future technology will be available to everyone. As MAI Labs continues to push boundaries, Mr. Sangal’s ideas shine through.
StartupTalky: What inspired you to launch MAI Labs and focus on the next Internet?
Mr. Sangal: The inspiration behind launching MAI Labs stemmed from a strong belief in technology’s transformative power and its potential to create a more equitable and efficient digital world. We recognized that, despite the immense advances in technology, access to these innovations remained limited, particularly in sectors where complexity and regulatory challenges hinder widespread adoption.
Our vision for MAI Labs was to bridge this gap by simplifying advanced technologies and making them more accessible. This journey led us to focus on creating a new era of the Internet—one that moves beyond the limitations of centralized systems toward a decentralized, secure, and user-controlled digital ecosystem. Our goal is to empower users by giving them greater ownership over their digital assets, data, and interactions, enabling a truly democratic digital infrastructure.
MAI Labs seeks to incubate deep-tech solutions that drive this transition, and our approach is grounded in regulatory compliance, scalability, and accessibility. We aim to lead the development of public digital infrastructure for the decentralized Internet, positioning MAI Labs as a key player in reshaping how people interact with technology.
StartupTalky: How does KALP, MAI Labs’ flagship product, differentiate itself from other blockchain platforms in terms of democratising digital infrastructure?
Mr. Sangal: KALP stands out as a blockchain platform that truly democratizes digital infrastructure. While many platforms offer decentralized solutions, KALP takes it a step further by integrating regulatory compliance directly into its architecture. This ensures that all participants on the network are verified, enhancing trust and security—a critical aspect for the regulated tokenization of real-world assets (RWA).
What sets KALP apart is its comprehensive approach to decentralized public infrastructure. It provides a secure, high-performance platform with features like multi-chain mastery, enabling interoperability across multiple blockchains with simultaneous block finality. Additionally, KALP ensures user sovereignty by granting users full control over their private keys, making it a user-centric blockchain experience.
Another key differentiator is the strategic deployment of physical and cloud-based nodes across the globe, ensuring true decentralization and preventing any single entity from controlling the network. KALP’s coalition model further enables partners to host nodes in their locations, expanding the platform’s reach and robustness.
With a suite of tools, including KALP-Insight, which provides advanced analytics and monitoring, KALP not only democratizes digital infrastructure but also offers actionable insights for participants to make informed decisions.
StartupTalky: How does MAI Labs’ MY IPR platform transform intellectual property management?
Mr. Sangal: MY IPR, a revolutionary platform developed by MAI Labs, is the world’s first Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management cloud designed to transform how creators, inventors, and businesses manage, protect, and monetize their intellectual property. Traditional IP management processes are often fragmented, inefficient, and costly. MY IPR addresses these challenges by providing a fully integrated digital platform that simplifies the process from registration to monetization.
By leveraging blockchain technology, MY IPR ensures immutability and transparency in intellectual property management. Creators and inventors can securely register their IP assets with instant verification, reducing the risk of infringement. The platform’s assetization feature allows IP to be tokenized, creating new opportunities for creators to monetize their intellectual property by trading and sharing royalties seamlessly.
Moreover, MY IPR offers tools for analytics and insights, empowering users to track the performance of their IP assets in real-time. This data-driven approach transforms IP from a static legal protection into a dynamic, revenue-generating asset. Ultimately, MY IPR democratizes IP management, making it accessible, secure, and efficient for creators across various industries.
StartupTalky: What key trends in blockchain and AI do you think will shape the tech industry’s future in the next 5 years?
Mr. Sangal: Over the next five years, we expect blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) to converge, creating transformative impacts across various industries. Here are some of the key trends that will shape the future of technology:
Blockchain-AI Convergence: The integration of blockchain’s security and transparency with AI’s analytical power will drive new, trust-based business models. Blockchain will enable secure data sharing between AI systems, enhancing the reliability and accuracy of AI predictions. This convergence will fuel advancements in sectors like healthcare, finance, and supply chain, where both trust and data integrity are paramount.
Data Privacy and Security: With the rise of data breaches and privacy concerns, the fusion of blockchain and AI will create robust solutions for protecting sensitive information. Blockchain’s decentralized nature, combined with AI’s ability to monitor and detect threats in real time, will ensure enhanced security for personal data, particularly in regulated industries such as healthcare and finance.
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): As blockchain adoption grows, DAOs will emerge as a significant trend, enabling communities and businesses to operate without centralized leadership. AI will play a key role in automating the decision-making processes within DAOs, improving efficiency and transparency in governance.
AI-Enhanced Blockchain Operations: AI will streamline and optimize blockchain operations, from consensus mechanisms to smart contract execution. By automating complex processes, AI will make blockchain technology more efficient and scalable, supporting its adoption across global industries.
These trends will not only drive innovation but also redefine how industries operate, creating new opportunities for businesses and society to thrive in a decentralized and intelligent world.
StartupTalky: What role do you see AI playing in MAI Labs’ future projects?
Mr. Sangal: At MAI Labs, AI is poised to play a pivotal role in driving operational efficiency and enhancing the performance of various solutions across our product portfolio. We see AI as an indispensable tool in automating processes that require large-scale data analysis, fraud detection, and real-time monitoring. By integrating AI into our platforms, we can deliver faster, more reliable results in sectors like finance, healthcare, and real estate, where precision and speed are essential.
However, while AI will augment efficiency in repetitive or high-volume tasks, MAI Labs remains committed to keeping the creative and strategic aspects of our projects human-centric. We believe that true innovation stems from human creativity, which cannot be fully replicated by algorithms. AI will serve as a powerful enabler in tasks like data processing, compliance checks, and smart contract management, allowing our teams to focus on more complex, high-value work such as strategy development, design, and user experience.
In future projects, we envision AI playing a critical role in our decentralized infrastructure, particularly in optimizing smart contract execution, personalizing user experiences within immersive environments, and enabling predictive analytics. By harnessing AI, MAI Labs will be able to scale faster while maintaining a high standard of quality, security, and compliance.
StartupTalky: How does MAI Labs integrate blockchain with legal frameworks?
Mr. Sangal: MAI Labs has been a pioneer in integrating blockchain technology within established legal frameworks, making compliance a core component of our blockchain infrastructure. The decentralized nature of blockchain often raises concerns about regulation and legal enforceability, but MAI Labs addresses this by embedding legal standards directly into our smart contracts and blockchain protocols.
Our flagship product, KALP, is built with a “regulatory by design” approach. We collaborate closely with legal experts to ensure that all transactions and interactions within the KALP ecosystem are compliant with global regulations, such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), and data protection standards like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This allows users to engage in blockchain activities with confidence, knowing that their operations are fully compliant with relevant legal requirements.
Moreover, our Legal and Grievance Layer provides a unique mechanism for users to enforce legal rights and pursue remedies in the event of disputes or irregularities. By embedding legal terms and conditions into the blockchain’s code, we ensure that smart contracts are legally binding and enforceable in traditional legal systems. This integration of blockchain with legal frameworks not only enhances the trust and reliability of our digital infrastructure but also sets a new standard for how decentralized systems can coexist with established legal norms.
StartupTalky: What challenges did you face while developing KALP, and how did you overcome them?
Mr. Sangal: Developing KALP presented several significant challenges, which we addressed through innovation, collaboration, and a focus on regulatory compliance. One of the major challenges was balancing decentralization with regulatory adherence. In a decentralized blockchain, ensuring that participants and transactions meet global regulatory standards such as KYC, AML, and GDPR requires advanced protocols that don’t compromise the blockchain’s decentralized nature. We overcame this challenge by embedding compliance directly into the core architecture of KALP, creating a platform that aligns with regulations without sacrificing decentralization.
Another challenge was scalability. Blockchain platforms often struggle with transaction speed and throughput, which can limit their ability to handle large volumes of data and real-time operations. We solved this by building KALP with multi-chain capabilities and parallel processing, which allows multiple chains to run concurrently and achieve block finality simultaneously. This architecture drastically improves scalability, enabling KALP to support a high volume of transactions without slowing down.
Interoperability with other blockchains was also a crucial hurdle. To ensure that KALP could function seamlessly with other blockchain ecosystems, we developed an innovative approach to multi-chain mastery, allowing KALP to interact with various blockchain networks while maintaining security and performance integrity.
Through continuous innovation and strategic partnerships, we addressed these challenges and built KALP into a platform that is scalable, compliant, and interoperable—setting new benchmarks for blockchain technology.
StartupTalky: How do you envision Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) impacting global finance?
Mr. Sangal: Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) represent a transformative shift in global finance, offering the potential to modernize monetary systems, increase financial inclusion, and enhance the efficiency of cross-border payments. We envision CBDCs becoming a key component of the global financial infrastructure, driving both innovation and regulation in the digital asset space.
CBDCs will likely streamline transactions by reducing the reliance on intermediaries, which can make payments faster, cheaper, and more transparent. The programmability of digital currencies will enable central banks to implement monetary policies more effectively and with greater precision. For example, smart contracts could automate conditional payments, such as stimulus distributions, or enforce compliance with tax obligations in real-time.
Additionally, CBDCs could play a vital role in financial inclusion. By providing a digital currency accessible through mobile devices, central banks can reach unbanked populations in regions where traditional banking infrastructure is limited. This could democratize access to financial services and reduce barriers to entry for individuals and businesses in emerging markets.
However, the adoption of CBDCs will also raise important questions about privacy, cybersecurity, and the balance between centralization and decentralization. The integration of CBDCs with existing financial systems will require robust regulatory frameworks and a clear approach to protecting user privacy while maintaining transparency.
At MAI Labs, we see CBDCs as a significant opportunity for the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) and decentralized finance (DeFi), where they could serve as a stable, government-backed asset within decentralized ecosystems. This will foster trust in blockchain-based financial systems and accelerate the adoption of decentralized finance on a global scale.
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StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see in combining blockchain and AI?
Mr. Sangal: The combination of blockchain and AI presents transformative opportunities across multiple industries, enhancing both technological capabilities and business processes. At MAI Labs, we believe that integrating blockchain’s secure, transparent ledger system with AI’s predictive power can unlock new levels of efficiency, innovation, and trust.
Enhanced Data Security and Privacy: One of the key opportunities lies in data privacy and security. Blockchain’s decentralized nature ensures that data is stored immutably and securely, while AI can analyze this data to detect patterns and anomalies. This combination can be particularly powerful in industries like healthcare and finance, where sensitive data requires both protection and insight. AI can process encrypted data on the blockchain without compromising security, enabling insights without exposing sensitive information.
Automated Smart Contracts: Blockchain smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms directly written into code. AI can optimize these contracts by automating decision-making processes based on real-time data, ensuring the contracts adapt to changing conditions. This creates a dynamic environment where complex business processes can be automated, reducing human intervention and errors while improving efficiency.
Supply Chain Optimization: In logistics and supply chain management, AI can enhance blockchain’s tracking capabilities by predicting supply chain disruptions and recommending alternatives in real-time. The immutability of blockchain ensures that every action taken is recorded transparently, while AI provides the intelligence to optimize routes, manage inventory, and improve overall efficiency.
Personalized Financial Services: AI’s ability to analyze large datasets can enable the personalization of financial services, such as investment strategies or credit scoring, by analyzing user behavior and financial history. Blockchain ensures that these processes are transparent and secure, fostering trust between financial institutions and their customers.
Together, blockchain and AI represent a powerful combination that can create smarter, more secure systems across industries, driving new business models and reshaping the future of technology.
StartupTalky: What is the MayaaVerse project, and how does it align with MAI Labs’ vision for future technology?
Mr. Sangal: MayaaVerse is dedicated to delivering more than just a concept—it’s a comprehensive immersive technology platform embedded with AI, accessible to everyone. By empowering individuals and organizations to create, experience, and monetize in unprecedented digital environments, MayaaVerse is setting new standards in immersive experiences.
MayaaVerse represents a milestone in MAI Labs’ mission to redefine human-computer interaction and unlock creativity within immersive environments. This advancement marks the next stage of interaction—a seamless fusion of the physical and digital worlds. Our goal is to revolutionize the creator economy by offering an innovative platform that empowers creators to develop, collaborate, and monetize their digital content in new and transformative ways using immersive technologies and AI. Given the immense potential we see, we are confident in our decision to make a significant investment in this technological arena.
StartupTalky: How do you ensure the technology developed at MAI Labs is accessible and inclusive?
Mr. Sangal: At MAI Labs, accessibility and inclusivity are foundational principles that guide the development of all our technologies. We believe that advanced digital infrastructure should be available to everyone, regardless of their technical expertise, geographic location, or economic background. To achieve this, we take a multi-faceted approach:
User-Centric Design: Our platforms, such as KALP and MayaaVerse, are designed with a user-friendly interface that simplifies complex technologies like blockchain, AI, and immersive experiences. This lowers the barrier to entry for individuals and businesses unfamiliar with deep-tech solutions. For instance, KALP Studio provides developers and non-developers alike with intuitive tools for creating and managing decentralized applications (dApps) without requiring advanced programming skills.
Scalability and Customization: MAI Labs’ technology stack is scalable and customizable to meet the needs of both small businesses and large enterprises. We offer white-label solutions, enabling startups and entrepreneurs to build on our technology with minimal upfront investment. This inclusive approach allows businesses of all sizes to access cutting-edge infrastructure without the burden of heavy financial commitments.
Global Reach: Our decentralized architecture, particularly in products like KALP, ensures that our solutions can be deployed and managed globally, overcoming traditional geographic limitations. Additionally, we partner with local entities to provide localized support and resources, making it easier for users in different regions to adopt and benefit from our technology.
Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring compliance with global regulations is critical to making our technology accessible. By integrating legal frameworks and compliance measures into our platforms, we provide a safe and secure environment for users, which is particularly important in regions with stringent regulatory requirements.
Ongoing Education and Support: We are committed to educating users about the potential of our technology through workshops, training programs, and community engagement. By providing technical support and fostering knowledge-sharing, we ensure that more people can take advantage of our platforms.
Through these efforts, MAI Labs is democratizing access to deep-tech innovations, ensuring that everyone-regardless of their background-can participate in and benefit from the next generation of digital infrastructure.
StartupTalky: How do you balance innovation with security in your products?
Mr. Sangal: At MAI Labs, security is at the core of everything we build, and we have developed a robust framework to ensure that our innovations are both cutting-edge and secure. Balancing innovation with security requires a thoughtful, layered approach that integrates the latest advancements in technology with industry-best security practices.
Blockchain Security Architecture: Our proprietary blockchain, KALP, is designed with multiple layers of security, including cryptographic protocols, decentralized governance, and real-time transaction monitoring. By embedding compliance with global security standards, such as GDPR, AML, and KYC, directly into the blockchain, we ensure that security is never compromised, even as we innovate.
Smart Contract Audits: We conduct rigorous audits of all smart contracts deployed on the KALP platform. These audits ensure that our smart contracts are secure, preventing vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious actors. This focus on security does not slow down innovation but rather strengthens it by building trust in the reliability and safety of our systems.
Legal and Grievance Layer: One of the key innovations we’ve implemented is the Legal and Grievance Layer in our blockchain. This layer allows for legal recourse in the event of disputes or irregularities, providing an additional level of protection for users. By integrating a security-first approach with a legal framework, we ensure that our users are protected from both technical and legal threats.
Continuous Monitoring and AI Integration: Our use of AI for real-time monitoring and fraud detection enhances the security of our platforms. By continuously scanning for anomalies and potential threats, we can identify and mitigate risks as they emerge. This proactive approach ensures that security evolves alongside our innovations, keeping our platforms resilient in the face of new challenges.
Privacy by Design: We take a privacy-first approach to product development, ensuring that all user data is protected by encryption and secure storage mechanisms. Additionally, our platforms provide users with full control over their private keys, ensuring that they maintain ownership and control over their digital assets.
In summary, we prioritize security at every stage of product development, from design to deployment, while fostering an environment of continuous innovation. This allows us to build advanced, scalable solutions that users can trust.
StartupTalky: What are your thoughts on the future of digital ownership and intellectual property?
Mr. Sangal: The future of digital ownership and intellectual property (IP) is set to be revolutionized by blockchain technology, with platforms like our MY IPR playing a pivotal role. As digital content continues to grow exponentially, the need for secure, transparent, and immutable systems to protect and manage digital assets becomes paramount. Blockchain provides a decentralized framework where creators can assert ownership, track usage, and monetize their digital intellectual property without intermediaries.
One of the most significant shifts we anticipate is the tokenization of IP. By transforming intellectual property rights into digital tokens, creators will have more control over how their work is distributed and monetized. This tokenization will allow for fractional ownership, where multiple stakeholders can hold shares in a piece of intellectual property, enabling new revenue models for creators, including micro-royalties and automated payments via smart contracts.
StartupTalky: What global markets are you focusing on next for MAI Labs?
Mr. Sangal: MAI Labs is strategically focusing on expanding into several high-potential global markets that are primed for blockchain adoption and immersive technology solutions. Our next phase of growth will target regions with favorable regulatory environments, growing demand for decentralized solutions, and established digital infrastructure.
Middle East and North Africa (MENA): The MENA region, particularly countries like the UAE and Qatar, is rapidly becoming a hub for blockchain innovation. Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has created a conducive environment for blockchain-based platforms, and we are already establishing our STOEX Exchanges in this region. With increasing government and institutional support for blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi), MENA is a critical focus area for our expansion.
Southeast Asia: Southeast Asia is emerging as a hotbed for blockchain and digital asset innovation. Countries like Singapore and Malaysia have adopted progressive regulatory frameworks that support blockchain and tokenization platforms. The region’s growing tech-savvy population and high rate of digital adoption make it an ideal market for products like KALP and Kalpify.
Europe: Europe’s focus on data privacy, digital innovation, and regulatory compliance aligns well with our core offerings. The European Union’s evolving regulations around digital assets, particularly through the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) framework, present an opportunity for MAI Labs to introduce our compliant and secure platforms. Additionally, Europe’s push for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) opens up new possibilities for collaboration and expansion.
India: India’s robust tech talent pool and growing interest in blockchain make it a critical market for MAI Labs. We are focusing on sectors like real estate, healthcare, and financial services, where blockchain and AI can drive significant value. As the government continues to explore the use of blockchain for public administration and governance, we aim to position MAI Labs as a leader in this market.
By focusing on these global markets, MAI Labs is poised to become a leading provider of decentralized solutions, immersive experiences, and tokenized assets worldwide.
StartupTalky: How does MAI Labs plan to empower the next billion users globally?
Mr. Sangal: At MAI Labs, our mission is to make cutting-edge technology accessible to everyone, and empowering the next billion users is at the core of our vision. We aim to achieve this through a multi-pronged approach that focuses on inclusivity, innovation, and global accessibility.
Building Scalable and Accessible Platforms: Our technology platforms, such as KALP, MayaaVerse, and MY IPR, are designed to scale seamlessly while remaining user-friendly and inclusive. By focusing on intuitive interfaces and reducing the complexity of blockchain, AI, and immersive technologies, we can bring advanced digital tools to a broader audience. For example, KALP’s decentralized infrastructure and regulatory compliance ensure that individuals from all regions, regardless of their technical expertise, can engage with secure, scalable blockchain technology.
Democratizing Access to Digital Assets: Through platforms like Kalpify and STOEX Exchanges, we are working to democratize access to real-world assets by making tokenization simple and accessible. This allows individuals from emerging markets to participate in fractional ownership of assets such as real estate, commodities, and intellectual property. Our goal is to bridge the gap between traditional financial systems and decentralized finance, creating opportunities for users who have been underserved by conventional banking systems.
Supporting Entrepreneurs and Innovators: MAI Labs is committed to fostering entrepreneurship by offering access to our comprehensive tech stack, including blockchain, AI, and immersive experience tools, with no upfront costs. Through initiatives like our entrepreneur support programs, we enable startups to leverage our technology to build innovative solutions without the financial burden of technology development. This empowers new businesses to grow and succeed, especially in regions where access to advanced technology is limited.
Promoting Financial Inclusion: One of our key goals is to bring financial services to unbanked and underbanked populations. By leveraging blockchain technology, we can offer decentralized financial services (DeFi) that enable users to store value, send payments, and access credit, even without a traditional banking infrastructure. This opens up new opportunities for economic participation, particularly in developing nations where financial inclusion remains a challenge.
Education and Skill Development: We believe that educating the next billion users is essential to driving meaningful engagement with technology. MAI Labs invests in educational programs and partnerships that teach digital literacy, blockchain development, and AI skills to individuals worldwide. Through workshops, training sessions, and online resources, we empower users to not only use our platforms but also create and innovate within the digital ecosystem.
By combining advanced technology with a deep commitment to inclusivity and education, MAI Labs is working to ensure that the next billion users are empowered to fully participate in the digital economy, creating a more connected, equitable, and innovative world.
Shubham Kumar
