Ratan Tata Backed Startup Niki.ai Raises Rs. 13 Crores

Bengaluru based artificial intelligence startup Niki.ai has raised Rs. 13 crores from San Francisco based fund SAP.io in a Series A funding round. Existing investor Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures along with Haresh Chawla, Partner at True North and Arihant Patni also participated in this round besides some US and German based investors.

The AI startup was found in 2015 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Sachin Jaiswal, Keshav Prawasi, Nitin Babel and Shishir Modi. The startup provides a conversational interface to shop for products and services and tries to make artificial intelligence accessible to everyone. Niki.ai uses a chat interface ‘Niki’ with machine learning technologies to converse with customers.

According to CEO Sachin Jaiswal, this new capital will be used to further strengthen machine learning capabilities, building voice and multilingual functionalities and expanding distribution network.

Presently the 32 member team is working with companies like BookMyShow, OYO, RedBus, Ola, Uber, JustRechargeIt and others, covering over 20 categories. The startup also raised an undisclosed amount in May 2016, from Ratan Tata.

San Francisco based SAP.io was launched by software giant SAP in March this year with an initial investment of $35 million. They seek to expand the SAP ecosystem by making early stage investments in software startups. The managing director of SAP.io Ram Jambunathan, managing director of SAO.io has stated that Niki.ai, with its innovative technical approach, is capable of building a scalable product that can change commerce industry as a whole.

In recent times artificial intelligence based startups have gained significance in the startup ecosystem. Bengaluru based Boxx.ai also raised $500,000 from Unicorn India Ventures and product discovery platform Unbxd raised $12.5 million in Series C funding round.