IDG Ventures, others invest $2 mn in speech recognition startup Uniphore

By Priya Singh

  • 03 Oct 2016

Chennai-based speech recognition startup Uniphore Software Systems has raised $2 million (Rs 13.4 crore) in a bridge round led by IDG Ventures with participation of existing investors, including Indian Angel Network (IAN) and YourNest Angel Fund.

“We are happy with the kind of progress the company has made and how it has migrated from an enterprise model to a SaaS model. It has also got marquee brands as clients,” said Girish Shivani, partner, YourNest Angel Fund told Techcircle.in.

Uniphore was started in 2008 by Umesh Sachdev (CEO) and Ravi Saraogi (COO), both alumni of Jaypee University of Information Technology, Himachal Pradesh.

Earlier, Sachdev also co-founded Singularis Technologies, and prior to that he worked at TeNet. Saraogi has experience in directing technology teams in initiatives spanning mobile theft security, wireless network development and mobile learning applications.

The company has worked with over 70 enterprise customers and served over 4 million users. It has offices in India, Philippines and the UAE.

In 2014, it raised an undisclosed amount from a group of investors led by Nagaraja Prakasam and MV Subramanian, both members of IAN. 

Uniphore’s other investors include Ray Stata, co-founder and chairman of Analog Devices Inc; IIT Madras’ Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI), Villgro Innovations Foundation and National Research Development Corporation.

The company has also made a string of top-level hires in the recent past. In February 2016, the company appointed Sami Benafia as director of sales in Middle East and Aravind Gaddala as director of product management in Chennai.

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