New York and Bangalore, India-based Voice AI startup Skit has announced its latest Series B round of funding.
Skit’s solutions are aimed at the customer service market, with its AI voice automation platform Vernacular Intelligent Voice Assistant (VIVA) using speech recognition and natural language understanding to understand customer intent.
Deployed in contact centres, VIVA can respond in more than 16 languages, replicating human-like conversations in areas such as banking and financial services, food and beverage, ecommerce, automotive, and travel and tourism.
Skit’s latest $23mn Series B round of funding was led by WestBridge Capital, alongside Kalaari Capital, Exfinity Ventures, Angelist syndicate and Letsventure syndicate. Along with its Series A in May 2020, the announcement brings total funds raised to $30mn, having grown its revenue four times in the intervening period.
This investment comes when we are making strategic inroads into the US and SouthEast Asian markets. Clients and investors alike have recognised the uniqueness and superiority of our product and continue to show confidence in our growth path. The global contact centre market size is expected to grow steadily and reach a value of 496 billion US dollars by 2027,” said Sourabh Gupta, CEO and Co-founder of Skit.
“To address this sizable growth, we at Skit are using voice bot innovation and our market observations to personalize caller experiences at customer contact centres, and deliver upto 50% 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.”
The company said it would use the funds to fuel development of its voice technology, as well as expand globally.
“We are delighted to back Sourabh and Akshay [Deshraj, Co-founder and CTO of Skit] 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,” said Sashi Reddi, Venture Advisor to Westbridge Capital.
