Yellow Messenger, a conversational artificial intelligence platform, has raised $20 million (about Rs 154 crore) in its Series B funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and its India arm.
The Bengaluru-based startup said in a statement it will use the fresh capital to grow its business across the US, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific markets.
The company will also invest in its product innovation roadmap, including deepening multi-lingual voice bot capabilities, expanding enterprise integrations, and launching a developer marketplace for virtual assistants.
“Our product has consistently offered a truly scalable solution by delivering meaningful and measurable results to enterprises across the globe,” Raghu Ravinutala, co-founder and CEO at Yellow Messenger, said.
Yellow Messenger, operated by Bitonic Technology Labs Pvt. Ltd, was set up in 2014 by Ravinutala, Jaya Kishore Reddy and Rashid Khan. Its platform allows enterprises to automate and orchestrate workflows for customer and employee management.
The company’s platform utilises chatbots across several channels – including ones by Microsoft, Facebook and Slack – to carry out its engagement activities. Communications can take place in over 120 languages and are conducted through both voice and text mediums.
The startup had last year mobilised $4 million (Rs 27.7 crore then) in its Series A funding round from Lightspeed and a bunch of angel investors.
The company says it has helped enable over 30 million monthly conversations through chatbots, with clients including companies such as Accenture, Bajaj Finance, TCS, MG Motors and Xiaomi India.
Yellow Messenger reported net sales of Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 5.14 crore for the 2018 and 2019 financial years, according to VCCEdge, the data research arm of Mosaic Digital. It also reported profit-after-tax figures of Rs 0.65 crore and Rs 1.04 crore for the same period.
Deals in the AI segment
Companies whose platforms by artificial intelligence have received positive investor attention in the past several years. Investors are betting on these startups’ focus on eliminating economic inefficiencies and low overhead costs.
In December last year, Observe.ai, an AI-based startup that focuses on voice conversations for customer service, raised $26 million in its Series A funding round from a clutch of investors.
In September, Haptik Inc., an AI-based conversational platform controlled by Reliance Industries Ltd, acquired Buzzo.ai, a Mumbai-based conversational commerce platform.
In August, Chennai-based conversational AI startup Uniphore Software Systems Pvt. Ltd raised $51 million in a Series C funding round led by California-based March Capital Partners.