Vadodara-based Phonon Communications Pvt Ltd, which offers automated customer interaction solutions, has acquired Gurgaon-based chatbot startup iDelivr for an undisclosed sum, a company statement said.
As part of the transaction, iDelivr’s co-founders Vijayendra Singh and Kumar Gyanendra will join Phonon as the new chief operating officer and chief technology officer, respectively.
“Consumer preferences are shifting from traditional call centre support towards newer support platforms which include web chat, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. iDelivr team’s expertise on AI and NLP will make us a truly multi-modal, speech and text-based, automation enterprise,” Ujwal Makhija, CEO, Phonon Communications, said in the statement.
Founded in 2015, iDelivr builds industry-specific chatbots that mimic human-like interactions using technologies like AI and natural language processing (NLP). The company’s solutions have been adopted by companies in industries such as banking, financial services, insurance and mutual fund. The chatbots help them achieve faster resolution of customer queries.
An IIM-Calcutta alumni, Singh was earlier the managing director for FoodPanda India. In his earlier assignments, he has worked at McKinsey and Evalueserve. Co-founder Gyanendra is an IIT-Kharagpur graduate and worked at IT services company Computer Sciences Corporation.
“Digital channels will redefine the future of communications and AI bots are a significant part of the change as they can help businesses increase efficiency and reduce costs,” Singh said in the statement.
The company’s flagship product, Loanbot, has helped banks increase leads received from static forms by 30% and has boosted application fill rate by more than 50%, the company claimed.
According to Phonon, the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector has been the largest adopter of AI chatbot services and accounts for nearly 60% of its topline revenue.
Phonon was founded in 2006 by Makhija. The company provides automated customer interaction solutions for companies that include airlines, travel and leisure companies, banks, insurers, financial services enterprises and web portals in India and GCC countries. The company’s solutions claim to be automating more than 1 million daily customer interactions over voice, SMS and email and provides flight reschedule information to almost 60% of Indian flyers.
An IIM- Calcutta alumni, Makhija had previously served as assistant vice president at WNS Global Services, which was acquired by Warburg Pincus. Earlier, he worked at TCS.