vPhrase Analytics Solutions Pvt. Ltd, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based natural language generation technologies, on Tuesday said it has raised $2 million (Rs 14.31 crore) in its Series A funding round.
The funds were raised from Bharat Innovation Fund and Falcon Edge Capital, vPhrase said in a statement.
The company will use the funds for global expansion, and to launch new product, Explorazor, which is powered by vPhrase’s advanced natural language generation engine and machine intelligence.
vPhrase was founded in 2015 by Neerav Parekh. The company offers AI-powered business intelligence and reporting automation solutions using machine learning and natural language generation technology. Its current product -- Phrazor -- is a natural language generation platform which can create, configure and automate reports consumed by enterprises and individuals. Its clients include Fidelity International, Abbott, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank and Sony Pictures.
Navroz Udwadia, partner, Falcon Edge Capital, said natural language generation industry is at its nascence globally. “vPhrase’s Phrazor engine has already demonstrated strong product-market fit, high accuracy and easy customizability, and continue to impress us with their growing use-cases across industries,” he added.
The company had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by angel investors Apoorv Ranjan Sharma and Daud Ali from investment platform Venture Catalysts in March 2016.
Investors
Bharat Innovation Fund marked the first close of its $100-million venture fund that focuses on early-stage deep-tech investments in July last year.
The fund aims to support innovations in healthcare, agriculture, energy, fintech, digital and other emerging sectors. It will invest at the pre-Series A and Series A stages.
Its investments include credit-scoring platform CreditVidya and emotion recognition startup Entropik.
Falcon Edge was established in 2012 by Richard Gerson, along with Udwadia and Ryan Khoury. It manages more than $2 billion in assets globally.
In January, VCCircle reported that the hedge fund was raising money for India-focussed investment vehicle.
Last month, the hedge fund led an investment in student housing company Stanza Living. In June, the firm participated in the Rs 505 crore (around $72 million) Series C funding round of dockless scooter-sharing platform Bounce. Accel and Sequoia led that round, with the two investing Rs 138 crore and Rs 113.5 crore each.
It has also invested in companies such as ride-hailing unicorn Ola, classifieds portal Quikr, digital lender OfBusiness, non-banking financial company JM Financial Credit Solutions and real estate portal Housing.com.
