RAISE 2020: How B2B SaaS startup Xane AI is revolutionising user experience

Imagine you are out with your family on a long drive and the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Flipping through the car manual is probably the last thing that would come to your mind. Most people would try calling a car servicing centre for help. 

A similar incident – a car breakdown followed by the realisation that the information he needed was available in a manual but not easily accessible - led IIT-Delhi graduate Ayush Jain to start up.

Ayush, 25, was in college when he founded Xane AI in 2017.

The B2B SaaS platform uses artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision , and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to help organisations create personalised user experiences.

In April this year, he roped in Sahil Narain as a Co-founder and CTO. Sahil has earlier worked with NITI Aayog and the core team at Baxi. 

Based out of Gurugram and Amsterdam, Xane AI was initially bootstrapped by Ayush with a Rs 1 lakh loan from his parents. Along the journey, the SaaS startup raised Rs 1 crore from friends, family, and Netherlands-based accelerator Rockstart AI. 

What does it do?

“Product handbooks or how-to manuals are not intuitive. They are given to customers, field agents, service engineers, and potentially everyone connected with the product. But there is one underlying challenge common to all: information is available, but not accessible,” Ayush tells YourStory.

This problem is faced across industries - automobile, manufacturing, aviation, and maritime. Channels used by companies to communicate with their customers are usually inefficient and expensive.

“Organisations end up spending huge amounts of money in customer support, retention, and engagement,” Ayush says.

This is where Xane AI steps in.

It provides virtual assistance with AI for its clients’ service engineers, workshops, customers, and field agents. 

Working in a plug-and-play model, Xane AI’s platform integrates through an API to existing client CRM and mobile applications. It offers three products: Xane Assist (self-service user support), Xane CX (customer experience), and Xane HR (employee engagement). 

The name ‘Xane AI’ represents the startup’s vision. X stands for the four target stakeholders -- customer, field staff, service engineers and business as an entity; A for automation; N for natural interface; E for engaging experience; and AI for ‘through artificial intelligence’.

ALSO READ

RAISE 2020: Deep tech startup RoadMetrics crowdsources data to map road information at scale

Software as a service 

Xane AI works like a B2B SaaS startup. It charges clients based on the number of API calls made to its AI platform. For on-premise and high volumes, it also offers a licence. 

The platform serves custom business requirements. “We offer bespoke development of applications, which can be deployed on-premise or any of the cloud services,” Ayush says. 

The startup targets manufacturing-heavy industries like the automobile, consumer electronics, aviation, maritime, and heavy equipment (elevators and escalators) industries. 

“We use online mediums like LinkedIn to be visible to decision makers, and apply to co-innovative corporate programmes to accelerate the sales cycle,” Ayush says. 

Xane AI’’s client portfolio spans sectors, including automobile, FMCG, healthcare, banking, and entertainment. It has been helping organisations in 24 countries, including India, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Romania, Africa, Kuwait, US, UK, and Philippines, with consumer insights.

The startup has acquired most clients through referrals and word of mouth. It has received more than 1,80,000 API calls since inception and claims to have recorded 153.39 percent, 226.12 percent, and 914.69 percent revenue growth in the last three quarters, respectively. 

ALSO READ

[Tech30] How virtual event platform Samaaro managed 100 pc CRR within five months of its launch

Market overview and the future

According to a report by NASSCOM, India’s SaaS revenue reached $3.5 billion this year, 75 percent of which was through global sales. The report further states that the SaaS market is expected to grow to $400 billion by 2025. 

“Companies working in the space of user experience are our direct competition. However, we believe that neither computer vision nor NLP alone can drive an ideal user experience. It has to be combined and we are one of the first movers in the market, especially for those who utilise more than one aspect of AI - both visual and text-based to achieve this,” Ayush says. 

The founders initially faced challenges while building the team. However, over the last three years, Ayush has been able to rope in good talent and the team now has 12 employees. 

Going forward, Ayush plans to make Xane AI a global leader. “In the next five years, we envision ourselves as the go-to company to help enterprises push boundaries in delivering engaging cognitive experiences,” he says. 

The SaaS startup is sustainable in terms of cash flow. However, it plans to raise a round of funding in 2021, to support growth.