DaveAI raises pre-series funding to help brands add a human touch to digital conversations using digital human avatars.

Bengaluru based Artificial Intelligence sales augmentation platform, DaveAI said it has raised an undisclosed amount in their pre-series round of funding from Mumbai Angels Network, GHV Accelerator, IIIT Technology Venture partners and Mr. Mohan Kumar, CEO of Crestere Technologies.

From replacing chat bots with virtual avatars to creating contactless experiences in physical spaces, the startup's patent pending Empathetic AI technology is creating a new dimension for product discovery moving away from the traditional websites and four walls of stores & banks. DaveAI's avatars can be deployed on web, Kiosks, VR and AR. DaveAI is a Nasscom Deeptech club member and part of Intel's Maker Lab.

 

"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 next generation of Sales Experiences. This investment will help us enter new markets & sustain this growth at a global scale" said Sriram, Co-founder & CEO – DaveAI

 

Founded by Dr.Ananthakrishnan Gopal, Ashok Balasundaram & Sriram P H, this is the founding team’s second venture. Ananth has a PhD in Speech technology & ex Samsung R&D, Sriram was a client partner at HCL & Ashok was a retail entrepreneur.

Dr.Ananthakrishnan Gopal, Co-founder & CTO of 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 competent'

 

Virtual Sales Solutions have seen a surge in interest in the Post Covid world. With enterprises like Maruti Suzuki, Pidilite Industries, Landmark Group and some leading banks as customers, the startup recorded 230% revenue growth last quarter amidst a global slowdown.

 

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 superior experience to our customers.Our corporate accelerator, MAIL (Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab) provides an excellent platform to startups to collaborate and work with Maruti Suzuki to co-create solutions which 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.” –

 

DaveAI’s engagement with GHV Accelerator, one of the investors in the current round started when the startup won the Mobility and Automotive Innovation Labs program, MAIL in 2019 from Maruti Suzuki, powered by GHV. DaveAI is also a member of Nvidia’s Inception program and Intel India’s Maker Lab.

 

Talking about the investment, Mr.Vikram Upadhyay, Chief Mentor of 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 faired extremely well to showcase the impact of their technology with Maruti Suzuki MAIL, powered by GHV Accelerator, a signature industry cocreation program. This not only gave DaveAI a strong Industry validation, but also a confidence to GHV about their potential. DaveAI forms a part of GHV’s AI vision, where we would be deploying along with other co-investors INR 100 crore from our network, out of which 25% is already executed.’

 

This round was led by Mumbai Angels Network. Nandini Mansinkha, Co-promoter and 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 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.”