[Funding alert] Speech recognition startup Uniphore Software Systems raises $38M led by March Capital Partners

Chennai-based speech recognition startup, Uniphore Software Systems has raised close to $38 million in two tranches as part of its Series C round, according to RoC filings accessed by YourStory. The funding was led by California-based venture capital firm March Capital Partners.

The other investors who participated in the round include The CXO Fund, Patni Wealth Advisors, National Grid Partners, Intuitive.VC (Intuitive Growth Ventures), and Sistema Asia Fund among others along with existing investor Chiratae Ventures.

The company last raised its Series B round of $9.4 million in 2017 led by Chiratae Ventures in participation with John Chambers, Chairman of USISPF, and executive Chairman of Cisco, who invested in his personal capacity.

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Founded by Ravi Saraogi and Umesh Sachdev in 2008, Uniphore is a global conversational AI company that enables businesses to deliver transformational customer service across touchpoints. It has offices in the USA, Singapore, and India.

The company, which reported a 300 percent growth last year, is eyeing $100 million revenue in the next three years. 

Incubated at IIT Madras 10 years ago, Uniphore is investing in research and development around speech recognition and using artificial intelligence to build a conversational engine. 

Another AI-enabled speech recognition startup Mihup received Rs 12.5 crore in Series A funding in April 2019 from Accel Partners and Ideaspring Capital. Founded in 2016 by Biplab Chakraborty, Sandipan Chattopadhyay, Sandipan Mandal, and Tapan Barman, the Kolkata-based startup is building an AI-enabled speech recognition platform for vernacular languages. The service is currently available in three languages: Hindi, English, and Bengali. 

In March, tech giant Google rolled out an app 'Bolo' in India that uses speech recognition to tutor kids. Designed for students aged six to 12, Bolo helps to improve their English and Hindi reading skills. The app has a built-in “fun and helpful” reading buddy, ‘Diya’, a digital assistant in the form of a human toon who nudges, aids, explains, and assists children as they read aloud.

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