Hindustan Times : Apr 04, 2019, 09:29 AM
Reliance Industries Ltd on Wednesday announced that its subsidiary Reliance Jio has acquired Mumbai-based Haptik one of world’s largest conversational Artificial Intelligence platforms for about Rs 700 crore. The transaction size, including investment for growth & expansion, will see Rs 230 crore as consideration for the initial business transfer for the acquisition. TRAI showed that subscriber base of jio 29 crore.“We believe voice interactivity will be the primary mode of interaction for Digital India. We look forward to working with the experienced team of Haptik in realizing this vision for offering greater connectivity and rich communication experiences to the billion+ Indian consumers,” Akash Ambani added.The Haptik team will continue to drive growth of the business, including the enterprise platform as well as digital consumer assistants.Reliance will hold about 87% of the business with the rest being held by Haptik founders and employees through stock option grants.According to the company, the investment focus is on enhancement and expansion of the platform, with an addressable market opportunity of over one billion users in India.“We believe now is the opportunity to serve the next billion users who come online, and who better to partner with than one of the world’s largest digital ecosystems in Jio,” said Aakrit Vaish, Co-Founder and CEO, Haptik.