Enterprisetech Unicorn Gupshup Continues Acquisition Spree; Buys AI Startup AskSid To Strengthen Product Offerings

Enterprisetech unicorn Gupshup has acquired a 100% stake in conversational AI provider AskSid in an all-cash deal. 

According to Gupshup, the acquisition will strengthen its customer experience offerings and will help make its customers’ shopping journey conversational. 

Following this acquisition, Gupshup shall begin to collaborate with major companies working across the world. 

The acquisition comes after the cloud-based telephony startup, Knowlarity got acquired by Gupshup for an undisclosed amount in February 2022. The deal helped Gupshup to assimilate Knowlarity’s AI-powered tools into their business suite.

Founded in 2017 by Sanjoy Roy and Dinesh Sharma, AskSid partners with retail companies and uses AI to enhance the shopping experience on their websites. Its product offerings include IntelliSID, HeySID, ReplaySID, SwitchSID, TrainSID, MonitorSID and MeaureSID.

AskSid has worked with various global brands including AkzoNobel, Danone, Wolford, Akris and Himalaya Wellness, among others. It has a presence in more than 25 countries and offers services in more than 100 languages. 

AskSid is reported to have reduced 25% operational expenditure and boosted order conversion rate by 30%. It counts Google’s Rajan Anandan, Mintree’s Krishnakumar Natarajan and Parthasarathy NS, Microsoft’s Radha R, and Techstars as its investors. 

Founded in 2004 by Beerud Sheth, Gupshup is a conversational messaging platform that offers various services to businesses including banking, ecommerce, hospitality and consumer goods. It has worked with a large clientele including Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Ola, Zomato, and Flipkart.

In September 2021, Gupshup acquired New Jersey-based company Dotgo in a majority stock deal. Dotgo offers rich communication services (RCS) to customers. Its offerings include group chats, video, audio, and images.

In July 2021, Gupshup raised $240 Mn in a follow-on funding round after raising $100 Mn in a Series F funding round. With this investment, it planned to buy back shares from employees and some of its existing investors. 

The round saw participation from Fidelity Management and Research, Tiger Global, Think Investments, Malabar Investments, Harbor Spring Capital, Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers, White Oak, former WhatsApp head Neeraj Arora and others. 

In April 2021, Gupshup raised $100 Mn in its Series F funding round at a valuation of $1.4 Bn. It received investment from Tiger Global. Prior to this, it raised funds in a Series E funding round in 2011. 

Some of its competitors are Zendesk, Twilio, Yalo, SPECTRM, sinch, and Yellow.ai.

In 2021, customer experience automation platform Yellow.ai raised $78.15 Mn in a Series C funding round led by WestBridge Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. The round came after it raised a $24 Mn Series B funding round in April 2020.

In 2020, SaaS platform sinch forayed into India by acquiring Noida-based company ACL Mobile for $70 Mn. 

According to an IDC report, the Indian Artificial Intelligence Market is estimated to reach $7.8 Bn by 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2%.