CIE IIIT-H PORTFOLIO STARTUP, DAVEAI RECEIVES PRE-SERIES SEED FUNDING LED BY MUMBAI ANGELS NETWORK ET AL.

IIIT Hyderabad began supporting startups in 2008 aiming to commercialize the cutting-edge technologies developed by the universities’ research centres. With the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India recognizing them as an incubation facility in 2012, the Foundation extended itself to startups outside the institute as well.  In 2015, with CIE’s knowledge & experience, Telangana State Initiative, T-Hub was seeded inside IIIT-Hyderabad, to become the largest incubator in the country. Launching their first deep-tech accelerator program, AVISHKAR in 2016, CIE started a long, yet successful journey in launching, aiding & mentoring startups primarily focusing on deep-tech & med-tech startups through their structured accelerators. 

As a part of their AVISHKAR Startups, DaveAI, a Bangalore-based startup, which is an AI-powered sales augmentation platform, has raised a pre-series seed funding round led by Mumbai Angels Network, GHV Accelerator, IIIT Technology Venture Partners, and Mr. Mohan Kumar, CEO of Crestere Technologies. 

DaveAI helps brands replace chatbots with virtual avatars, creating a contactless customer experience in physical places creating a new dimension for product discovery through deployment in kiosks, VR, AR, and Web. Founded by Dr.Ananthakrishnan Gopal, Ashok Balasundaram & Sriram P H, DaveAI’s patent-pending ‘Empathetic AI Technology’ has been bringing a new dimension to the branding & customer experience and disrupting the virtual sales solution space. Dr.Ananthakrishnan Gopal, Co-founder & CTO, DaveAI commented, “We are continuing to work with leading technology partners like Intel, Nvidia along with academic research partners such as IIIT-Hyderabad. We will expand our research & development efforts to add new capabilities to the platform and stay globally competitive.” Adding further on the raise, Sriram, Co-founder & CEO, DaveAI said, “We are pleased to be backed by investors who understand technology & believe that world-class deep technology products can be built in India. DaveAI is an enterprise-grade AI platform for creating the next generation of Sales Experiences. This investment will help us enter new markets & sustain this growth at a global scale.”

Amidst a global pandemic & an economic slowdown, given the niche the startup operates in, DaveAI recorded a 230% revenue growth in its last quarter with customers such as Maruti Suzuki, Pidilite Industries, Landmark Group, and onboarding some leading banks. Talking about their engagement with DaveAI, Mr.Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki said, “We at Maruti Suzuki are constantly working towards bringing Innovative solutions to provide a superior experience to our customers. Our corporate accelerator, MAIL (Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab) provides an excellent platform for startups to collaborate and work with Maruti Suzuki to co-create solutions that will be quickly implemented in our business and ecosystem. We are collaborating with Dave AI, winner of our MAIL program (cohort 2) to implement multiple AI-based solutions to enrich the customer experience on our digital platforms.

We are confident that with this partnership, we can set new benchmarks to enhance business performance and improve customer interface.” Further, on the investment, Mr. Vikram Upadhyay, Chief Mentor, GHV Accelerator said, “AI being the future enabling Digital Transformation for Enterprises, is the core technology focus not only for GHV, but for Entrepreneurs, Enterprises and VC’s. As a part of the overall GHV’s vision of enabling value creation instead of valuation creation, DaveAI fared extremely well to showcase the impact of their technology with Maruti Suzuki MAIL, powered by GHV Accelerator, a signature industry co-creation program. This not only gave DaveAI a strong Industry validation but also confidence in GHV about their potential. DaveAI forms a part of GHV’s AI vision, where we would be deployed along with other co-investors INR 100 crore from our network, out of which 25% is already executed.” 

Being a member of NASSCOM Deeptech club member, Nvidia’s Inception program, and Intel India’s maker lab, Nandini Mansinkha, Co-promoter & CEO, Mumbai Angels Network commented, “Innovation of using Digital human avatars for having digital conversations is the best way to merge the physical and digital world altogether. We believe this innovation is going to progress in the future by transforming enterprises. AR/VR technology has a vast market that offers a potential new way of interaction between customers and the world around us.” 

Visit their website here and find out how they can elevate your brand’s value by creating a personalized virtual sales avatar. 

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