Chennai-based speech recognition software startup Uniphore Software Systems Pvt. Ltd narrowed its net loss for the year through March 2017 as it boosted its revenue and controlled costs.
The company, in which technology conglomerate Cisco’s executive chairman John T Chambers picked up a 10% stake this week, posted a 50% jump in operational revenue to Rs 5.43 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 3.61 crore the year before, its filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs show.
Gross revenue doubled to Rs 7.66 crore from Rs 3.69 crore, as other income soared to Rs 2.23 crore from Rs 8.62 lakh in 2015-16. Other income included interest income from banks, short-term capital gains, provision for expenses written off and foreign exchange gains.
The software-as-a-service operator counts hosting service and software development charges as part of its operational revenue.
Net loss shrank to Rs 13.25 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 14.36 crore the previous year. Total expenditure rose 15% to Rs 20.92 crore from Rs 18 crore. The company spent Rs 8.58 crore on employee benefits, software development costs were at Rs 1.44 crore and other general and administrative expenses were at Rs 10.64 crore.
Email queries to Uniphore co-founders Umesh Sachdev and Ravi Saraogi seeking comment on the financial performance did not elicit any response till the time of filing this report.
Uniphore, founded in 2008 by Jaypee University of Information Technology alumni Sachdev (CEO) and Saraogi (COO), has raised more than $13 million so far. Sachdev had also co-founded Singularis Technologies.
VCCircle had earlier reported that the company had raised $6.8 million (Rs 43.5 crore) in two tranches between April and July, with financial services company IIFL Holdings Ltd leading the round.
Uniphore operates speech analytics platform auMina, virtual assistant akeira and portable voice biometrics platform amVoice. It claims to be working with over 70 enterprise customers to serve over four million end-users.
In October 2016, Uniphore had started its operations in Singapore through a wholly owned subsidiary, Uniphore Software Systems Pte. Ltd, which focuses on its overseas operations.
