niki.ai
 | |
| Formerly | zabbed |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1 March 2015 Udaipur, India[1] |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | , |
Number of locations | 1 (2018) |
Area served | India |
Number of employees | 50[2] (2018) |
| Website | niki |
Niki is an artificial intelligence company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded in May 2015[3] by IIT Kharagpur graduates Sachin Jaiswal, Keshav Prawasi, Shishir Modi and Nitin Babel.
The Niki android app was launched for a limited beta in June, 2015, then released for public during YourStory's TechSparks 2015, and is a Tech30 company. The company raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding[4] from Unilazer Ventures,[5] a Mumbai-based VC firm founded by Ronnie Screwvala, in October 2015. This was followed by another seed funding round by Ratan Tata in May 2016.[6] The company then raised US$2 million in Series A round of funding from SAP.iO, existing investors and some US and Germany-based investors, among others.[7]
Product
The product is an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot which works as an intelligent personal assistant, named Niki. Leveraging natural language processing and machine learning, Niki presents a chat-based[8] natural language user interface to the users where they can interact with Niki in their natural language. Niki understands how users chat in India,[9] deciphers the words, in the context of product/services that they would like to purchase, and comes up with apt recommendations.
Initially it was only available on the Android platform as a mobile app. The company has expanded its operations to the Facebook messenger and Apple iOS platforms[10] and has introduced a better user experience and natural language processing technology.[11] The company aims to soon be present on more messaging platforms like Slack and WhatsApp.
The company currently provides 20+ services to over 2 million consumers, covering a wide spectrum ranging from utility services like mobile recharge, bill payments, travel services like cabs,[12] buses, hotels[13] and entertainment services like movies and events. Services such as flights and healthcare are also planned.[citation needed]
Partnerships
In September 2017, Infosys Finacle joined with Niki.ai to provide chat-based service to banking customers.[14]
In August 2017, Niki partnered with LazyPay to enable a 'buy now, pay later' feature for its users.[15]
References
- ^ "About the company". Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
- ^ "Meet the team". Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
- ^ "Udaipur-Based Niki Is Smarter Version Of Siri For E-Commerce". 14 July 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2016 – via indianweb2.com.
- ^ "Artificial Intelligence Startup Niki.ai Raises Funding From ... - Inc42". Retrieved 26 December 2016 – via Inc42.
- ^ "The Rise Of Bots: A Timeline Of Major VC-Backed Bot Startups - CB Insights". Retrieved 2 August 2016 – via CB Insights.
- ^ "Chat Bots Charm Ratan Tata, Another AI Startup - Entrepreneur". Retrieved 26 December 2016 – via entrepreneur.com.
- ^ "Ratan Tata-backed AI startup Niki.ai raises $2 mn in Series A round". VCCircle. 28 June 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
- ^ Leonid, Gorev. "Chat as an App Interface: When to Consider It". Retrieved 11 January 2017.
- ^ D'Cunha, Suparna Dutt (4 October 2016). "The AI Startup Wave Is Hitting India And Investors Are Taking Notice". Retrieved 11 January 2017 – via Forbes.
- ^ "Niki.ai's new Messenger bot lets you hail cabs and order snacks in India". 25 August 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2017 – via Venturebeat.
- ^ Srivastava, Vishal (20 July 2016). "Niki, the AI chatbot that lets you order anything and everything, gets major upgrade with improved design and NLP tech". Retrieved 11 January 2017 – via The Tech Portal.
- ^ Velayanikal, Malavika (3 December 2015). "So what if the Internet sucks in India? This AI chatbot gets things done". Retrieved 11 January 2017 – via Tech in Asia.
- ^ "Now you can book an OYO room via Niki bot". 5 October 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2017 – via Moneycontrol.com.
- ^ "Infosys arm to offer chat-based service to banking customers". The Economic Times. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ^ Vignesh, J. (31 August 2017). "Niki.ai partners with LazyPay to offer 'buy now, pay later' feature". The Economic Times. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
