[Funding alert] Vernacular.ai raises $5.1M in Series A round led by Exfinity Ventures, Kalaari Capital

Bengaluru-based vernacular.ai, an AI-based SaaS startup, has raised Series A investment of $5.1 million, led by Exfinity Ventures and Kalaari Capital. AngelList, IAN Fund, and LetsVenture also participated in the round.

The startup said the capital will be used to fund its expansion into Southeast Asia and the US, and towards R&D to further enhance its proprietary AI-based voice automation platform.

Sourabh Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Vernacular.ai, said, 

“As we evolve our voice AI platform VIVA, and expand into newer markets, we will continue to disrupt the legacy contact centre model. Our solution fits right in, and can help enterprises automate upto 80 percent of call centre operations and provide a matchless experience."

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Founded in 2016 by two IIT Roorkee graduates, Sourabh Gupta and Akshay Deshraj, Vernacular.ai provides an AI-based voice automation platform - VIVA - which helps accelerate engagement strategy, and utilise cutting-edge speech recognition and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technology to provide superior customer experiences across diverse sectors.

Vernacular.ai’s suite of speech and language solutions enables enterprises to convert audio to text by applying powerful neural network models in an easy-to-use API. The API recognises over 160 dialects in 10 different Indian languages to support the enterprise user base. 

Chinnu Senthilkumar, General Partner at Exfinity Ventures, added, 

“Vernacular.ai’s VIVA platform, a Next-Gen Voice AI platform, offers a true “Digital Transformation” experience to its BFSI and enterprise customers. VIVA completely eliminates the need for CAPEX intensive legacy IVR solutions, thus offering a superior cost-efficiency to its customers, combined with an uninterrupted 24x7 support and reach.”

In 2017, Vernacular.ai secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Kstart Capital, the seed program of venture capital firm Kalaari Capital.

Darshit Vora from Kalaari Capital, an existing investor who re-investing in this round said, 

“Vernacular.ai has developed the most advanced and accurate Voice AI platform for Indian language. Strong adoption and rapidly rising demand among Indian enterprises is a strong testament of its platform.”

Raman Roy, who is taking the board seat on behalf of the IAN Fund, shared,

“IAN Fund is really excited with the potential Vernacular.ai represents. It is a perfect proposition that leverages the opportunity that COVID-19 and the lockdown has created. Social distancing and digitisation are key in the “new normal”, and Vernacular.ai helps enterprises to engage much more effectively and efficiently with their customers.”