Conversational Automation Leader Uniphore Becomes the First Unicorn from the Incubation centre by raising $400 million
Chennai, NFAPost: Uniphore, the leader in conversational automation has raised a total of $400 million in Series E funding at a valuation of $2.5 billion, making it the first startup to gain a “unicorn” status from IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC), India’s leading deep-tech startup hub.
The origin of today’s hugely successful Uniphore can be traced back to 2007, when fresh graduates Umesh Sachdev and Ravi Saraogi, who are the founders of Uniphore, observed a market opportunity for building a startup with deep voice technology, capitalising on the nascent communication technology sector in India which had only just begun to take off.
Seeking the mentorship of telecom evangelist Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala in 2007, the duo moved across the country to Chennai to tirelessly harbor this entrepreneurial dream. Over the subsequent year and half, under nurturing and mentorship from the IIT Madras Incubation Cell, this initial seed of an idea was formally incubated in 2008 as Uniphore.
Uniphore initially started by providing speech recognition and voice biometrics technology, however, its technology has evolved into a powerful conversational automation platform that combines conversational AI, tonal emotion and computer vision to help recognize language, dialect, emotions, and intent in real time.
While Uniphore today marks its global presence, servicing multiple countries, its research and development (R&D) centre continues to be nurtured at the IITM Research Park.
Speaking on Uniphore’s achievement, IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) and IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP) President Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala said it is my biggest joy and pride to see how far our two kids have made it.
“What we have always aimed to do at IITM Research Park & IITM Incubation Cell is, create such an ecosystem where young people can thrive. It is not only a platform to help them dream big, but we get them to achieve it too. Uniphore has done it and many more are in the process of doing it. This will change India,” said IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) and IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP) President Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala.
Sharing his views, Uniphore Cofounder and CEO Umesh Sachdev said from the start, when Ravi and he began their journey 14 years ago at IITMIC, the biggest dream has been to create technologies that would fundamentally impact society and help us be better humans.
“Our vision and success today have been greatly influenced by IITMIC’s strong emphasis on innovations in the area of deep technology. Today, while we are proud to have reached this milestone, we know there’s a lot more work ahead of us,” said Uniphore Cofounder and CEO Umesh Sachdev.
He said demand has catapulted for our conversational AI and automation platform across industries and use cases, beyond the contact centre. Supported by talented and dedicated employees and loyal customers and partners, he is confident that are more than ready for Uniphore’s next phase of innovation and growth.
The IITM Incubation Cell (IITMIC) is the umbrella body that nurtures and oversees innovation and entrepreneurship at IIT Madras. With an aim to create an environment for budding entrepreneurs to solve problems of the world, it provides these start-ups with the necessary support to survive and grow in a competitive market.
The cell also supports innovation-driven activities at the institute by enabling office space and infrastructure, providing access to business support services alongside mentoring and training programs to enhance the skills of entrepreneurs and seed funds.
Over 250+ startups with impact as a key driver have been incubated through the highly successful innovation ecosystem at IITM Incubation Cell. The vision going ahead is to strengthen India’s startup ecosystem by nurturing more talent from tier 2 & 3 cities and support homegrown startups in achieving stellar recognition in India and globally.
ABOUT IITM Incubation Cell (IITMIC)
IITM Incubation Cell (IITMIC) has emerged as India’s leading Deep Technology Startup hub with Innovation and Impact as key differentiators/drivers. Over the last 8 years of its operations, IITMIC has overseen close to 250 new incubations, founded by IITM members (faculty, staff, students, and alumni) and external entrepreneurs (48%). The companies span the breadth of deep tech areas in globally critical domains, including manufacturing, robotics, energy, e-mobility, IoT, data sciences, healthcare, water, agri-tech. Today, the incubated startups are together valued at close to over ₹14000 crores and have created 5200+ direct jobs.
For more information about IITM Incubation Cell visit: www.incubation.iitm.ac.in
ABOUT IIT Madras Research Park
IIT Madras Research Park is India’s first University-based Research Park and a Section 8 Not-for-Profit Company home to 80+ R&D companies, 250+ Startups and 9 Centre of Excellence. Envisioned to “Bringing unlike minds together”, the Research Park primarily focuses on pioneering Industry-Academia interaction leading to commercialization of scalable and unique technology-based solutions, several of which have found wide market reach. The Research Park holds high eminence for epitomizing an innovation paradigm ecosystem across geographical boundaries, driving the roadmap towards achieving mammoth technological goals for India through its flagship project- 10X.
For more information about IIT Madras Research Park visit: https://respark.iitm.ac.in/
