Language speech recognition startup Uniphore raises Series A from Kris Gopalakrishnan
Chennai based language speech recognition solutions company Uniphore has closed an undisclosed amount of Series A round led by veteran Kris Gopalakrishnan (Co-Founder of Infosys) along with existing investors.
The funding will be used in expanding global footprints along with product and technology development. Additionally, these Series A funds help them to attract the best of the talent in this high-tech niche.
Uniphore’s solutions extend the power of speech to revolutionise human-machine interaction and allow any software application to understand and respond to natural human speech. The company's solutions include voice biometrics, virtual assistant and speech analytics.
Uniphore, also a Mobispark 2012 startup, has pioneered the development of integrated and smart speech-recognition applications and boast a roster of high profile, satisfied customers across many industries, including banking, insurance, BPOs, agriculture, lending/MFI, healthcare and government.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys Co-Founder and investor in Uniphore, said, “Continuing on my theme of backing inclusive innovations, I am optimistic of the success of Uniphore. Man-machine communication is a complex problem to solve. Uniphore’s vision lends possibility of finding a solution to this very difficult problem and the company has already made substantial progress.”
Prior to this Series A round, Uniphore had received investment from IDG Ventures India, India Angel Network, Ray Stata, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Analog Devices, Inc. and YourNest Angel Fund among others.
“Kris’ involvement gives us great confidence to transform our dream into reality. His experience in building mammoth and global businesses will help us move in the right direction. This investment is a powerful endorsement of Uniphore’s ability to provide unique and measurable value to our enterprise customers across industries through speech recognition technology,” said Umesh Sachdev, Co-founder and CEO, Uniphore.
Founded by Umesh Yadav and Ravi Saraogi, Uniphore offers services to various sectors, including banking, agri, healthcare among others. For banking, Uniphore enables voice-based mBanking system while on agriculture front the company combines IVR with SMS and GRPS technologies to deliver customized information to farmers through pre-scheduled voice and SMS announcements.
Analyst and industry estimates place the global market for enterprise mobility applications at $174 billion 2017. In a country of 1.2 billion people where only 250 million people speak English, vernacular speech recognition solutions have a great prospect.
