Voice AI Company Skit Secures $23 Mn In Series B Round From WestBridge Capital The fresh capital will help enhance the company's voice technology, developing personalized solutions while making strategic headway in global markets, like the US
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Voice artificial intelligence (AI) company Skit formerly known as Vernacular.ai, on Wednesday, announced that it has secured $23 million as part of its Series B funding, to fuel the next level of growth and product evolution. The investment was led by WestBridge Capital with participation from Kalaari Capital and Exfinity Ventures, Angelist syndicate led by Aaryaman Vir Shah from Prophetic Ventures, and LetsVenture syndicate led by Sense AI.
The capital will be used for sales and marketing, building delivery capabilities, R&D to speed up innovation and further enhance the company's products while expanding globally.
"This investment comes when we are making strategic inroads into the US and SouthEast Asian markets. Clients and investors alike have recognized the uniqueness and superiority of our product and continue to show confidence in our growth path. The global contact center market size is expected to grow steadily and reach a value of $496 billion by 2027. To address this sizable growth, we at Skit are using voice bot innovation and our market observations to personalize caller experiences at customer contact centers, and deliver up to 50 per cent cost reduction and superior customer experience. We are driven by the passion of our clients and our team to change the way businesses interact with their customers," said Sourabh Gupta, chief executive officer and co-founder, Skit.
With the fresh funding, Skit will potentially address the over $300 billion voice customer service market globally with its AI-based voice automation platform - vernacular intelligent voice assistant (VIVA). VIVA helps enterprises improve engagement strategies by utilizing speech recognition and natural language understanding (NLU) technology. With over 10 million hours of training data, VIVA has been deployed to help enterprises boost customer stickiness and loyalty through a deep understanding of the customer's context and intent.
Skit was founded in 2016 by IIT Roorkee alumnus, Sourabh Gupta, and Akshay Deshraj.
"We are delighted to back Sourabh and Akshay as they continue to help global companies transform how customer service is delivered. Skit's success in helping India's largest companies, positions them well to enter the US market where there is a massive need for voice AI solutions," stated Sashi Reddi, venture advisor, Westbridge Capital.
The fundraising follows a Series A announcement in May 2020, led by Exfinity Ventures and Kalaari Capital, AngelList, with IAN Fund and LetsVenture also participating in the round.
This Series B funding brings the startup's total raise to $30 million. The company plans to double down and scale operations in both Indian and global markets.
Since the last fundraise, Skit has been able to increase its revenue and customer growth by over fourfold building a strong partner network across industries such as banking, insurance, e-commerce, consumer durables, travel, and logistics, among others. The company has strengthened its workforce by over sixfold to prepare for future growth.
