Vernacular.ai raises US$ 5.1 million led by Exfinity Ventures, Kalaari Capital

Vernacular.ai, SaaS and AI-based startup, has raised US$ 5.1 million in Series A funding, led by Exfinity Ventures and Kalaari Capital. Other participants in the round were AngelList, IAN Fund and LetsVenture.

The company plans to utilise these funds in its expansion into Southeast Asia and the US, and towards R&D to further enhance its proprietary AI-based voice automation platform, said Vernacular.ai.

The company was founded in Bengaluru by IIT Roorkee graduates, Mr Sourabh Gupta and Mr Akshay Deshraj in 2016. Vernacular.ai provides an AI-based voice automation platform - VIVA that enhance the engagement strategy and uses speech recognition and natural language understanding (NLU) technology.

“As we evolve our voice AI platform - VIVA and expand into newer markets, we will continue to disrupt the legacy contact centre model," said Mr Sourabh Gupta, co-founder and CEO, Vernacular.ai.

Vernacular.ai’s suite of speech and language solutions allows enterprises to convert audio to text by using neural network models in an easy-to-use API. Over 160 dialects in 10 different Indian languages are recognised by API to support the enterprise user base.

“We believe in Vernacular.ai’s VIVA platform which eliminates the need for CAPEX intensive legacy IVR solutions, thus offering a cost-efficiency to its customers, combined with an uninterrupted 24x7 support and reach," said Mr Chinnu Senthilkumar, general partner at Exfinity Ventures.

“Voice is the future of human interface with machines. Voice AI for Indian language is a hard problem to solve with diverse languages and dialects. Vernacular.ai has developed the most advanced and accurate Voice AI platform for Indian language. Strong adoption and rapidly rising demand among Indian enterprises is a strong testament of its platform. We are privileged to be the early partners with Sourabh and Akshay in this journey," said Mr Darshit Vora from Kalaari Capital, an existing investor, which re-invested in this round.

Earlier in 2017, Vernacular.ai had received an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Kstart Capital, the seed program of Venture Capital firm Kalaari Capital.

“IAN Fund is really excited with the potential that Vernacular.ai represents. It is a perfect proposition that leverages the opportunity that covid-19 and lockdown has created. Social distancing and digitisation are key in the “new normal" and Vernacular.ai helps enterprises to engage and much more effectively and efficiently with their customers," said Mr Raman Roy, co-founder of IAN Fund.

 

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.