Mihup Communications Pvt. Ltd, which operates an eponymous conversational artificial intelligence platform, has raised $1.5 million (about Rs 11 crore) in a Series A funding round.
Participants in the ongoing round include Accel, Ideaspring Capital, Rajesh Jain-led Core91 VC and YuMe Networks founder and CEO Jayant Kadambi, Kolkata-based Mihup said in a statement.
It comes after the startup in April last year raised Rs 12.5 crore from Ideaspring Capital and Accel. In 2016, Mihup had secured Rs 45 crore from Accel.
Mihup was set up in 2016 by Tapan Barman, Sandipan Chattopadhyay and Biplab Chakraborty. The company says its platform uses AI to provide interaction analytics, which help call centres derive actionable insights to improve sales, collections and customer services. The company says its solutions can be deployed via the cloud or on-premises.
It will use the capital raised in this round to expand the size of its team, enhance product capabilities and technological infrastructure, and explore new markets.
“The funding will allow us to push Mihup to greater heights and invest in areas that will be a key to our long-term vision and success,” Barman said.
Accel partner Subrata Mitra said that the value proposition of Mihup was “very promising” even at the seed stage and that it has managed to acquire early customers and get product validation in several segments.
The Series A infusion is the latest move by investors in the AI segment, which has seen huge interest from alternative investment firm and strategic players in recent years.
In November, risk management and compliance startup SignalX Pvt Ltd raised Rs 6 crore in a seed funding round. The US-based 3Lines Venture Capital led the round. Another startup operating in the same space, AdvaRisk, raised Rs 2.33 crore from ICICI Bank that month.
During that same period, multinational firm Honeywell International Inc. made a strategic investment in internet-of-things platform Trinity Mobility Pvt Ltd.
In October, marketing cloud startup PyxisPM Inc. raised Rs 52 crore in a Series A funding round led by Chiratae Ventures, with participation from Pi Ventures and Exfinity Venture Partners.
