DaveAI, A Nasscom Deeptech Club start-up specializing in Visual AI, raises strategic round of funding by Marquee Investors from Japan and India

DaveAI, A Nasscom Deeptech Club start-up specializing in Visual AI, raises strategic round of funding by Marquee Investors from Japan and India
  • Investment led by Maruti Suzuki, GHV, Hakuhodo Inc., with participation from existing investors Mumbai Angels & IIIT Seed fund
  • First investment made through the Maruti Suzuki Innovation Fund

Bengaluru: DaveAI, a virtual AI avatar led sales experience platform announced a strategic round of investment led by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd – India’s largest automobile brand, GHV – India’s first and biggest industry Co-Creation innovation and investment group for Japan, Singapore, and South East Asia, and Hakuhodo Inc. – A global top 10 Integrated Marketing & Innovation Company. The round also saw participation from existing investors Mumbai Angels Network and IIIT Seed fund.

Talking about the investment, Sriram P H, Co-founder & CEO said “This strategic round of investment will help us meet growing global demand for assisted digital sales experiences. We have scaled rapidly in the last year with these strategic partnerships and are in early discussions about our Series A round to take us through the next phase of global growth.”

DaveAI was the winner of the Maruti Suzuki MAIL program, powered by GHV India’s largest mobility testbed. Maruti Suzuki is leading this round by making its first investment through the Maruti Suzuki Innovation Fund. “The investment would help MSI strengthen its offering to customers by creating a customised sales experiences on the web, virtual reality, and augmented reality,” the auto major said in a regulatory filing. DaveAI’s Virtual AI avatars power Maruti Suzuki’s digital car-buying journey across cars delivering a>30% increase in sales metrics.

DaveAI virtual avatars mimic a human sales brain coupled with state-of-the-art 3D Visualization, which is an industry first. “We are at the forefront of enabling some of the country’s largest brands in retail & banking, to take their first step in creating brand avatar-powered immersive Metaverse experiences,” said Dr. Ananth, Co-founder & CTO of DaveAI.

DaveAI has already leveraged GHV’s Digital transformation Lab & Industry Co-Creation programs to engage & scale with large enterprises in India & South East Asia. According to Mr. Vikram Upadhyaya, founder, GHV Group – “We, as GHV, are delighted to back DaveAI with additional capital, as the company has shown a consistent performance on T.E.S.T.PoC (C), GHV’s proprietary venture evaluation thesis. Further, the company aligns well with GHV’s vision of empowering Deep tech digital portfolios, as a part of its Digital Transformation framework for Enterprises such as Maruti Suzuki. This is one of the first examples of the most successful outcomes of the Maruti Suzuki MAIL program powered by GHV, and I am sure there would be many more to come.”

DaveAI witnessed 300% YoY growth in revenues in FY 2022. The platform is leveraged by large enterprise customers that include Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, BPCL, Landmark Group, Raymond, Karnataka Bank, etc. “Hakuhodo Inc. is very bullish on Indian Startups’ Innovation capabilities.

DaveAI’s technology will be integrated with Hakuhodo’s Advance MarTech Stack and will be made available in 150 offices across 20 countries, creating an edge for the Global Network” – Rakesh Yadav, CEO of Hakuhodo Group’s India Digital arm, AdGlobal360, said.

DaveAI has strong partnerships with leading technology companies such as Intel and SAP. With MSIL & Hakuhodo joining in, DaveAI is all set to build an Industry first platform that will help create the next generation of sales experiences.

This round also saw participation from DaveAI’s existing investors Mumbai Angels – India’s premier platform for private investment that holds an AUM of USD 130 Mn and a 200+ strong portfolio spanning a wide range of sectors, & tech startup investor IIIT Seedfund.

Talking about DaveAI’s capability in reshaping businesses, Nandini Mansinghka, Co-founder & CEO of Mumbai Angels said “AI-driven retail applications are coming into the limelight as the need for advanced data-driven analytics and engagement become the norm. DaveAl, with its real-time analytics solutions for customized recommendations, holds immense potential in boosting retailing KPIs for businesses. I am confident that the fresh capital will enable them not only to scale up but also maximize the profitability of retailing businesses.”

Talking about the investment, Mr.Viiveck Verma, Co-founder of IIIT Seedfund said “We have a longstanding association with DaveAI since their early stage when our network investors were mentoring them as part of IIIT CIE’s Avishkar program. It is great to see this deep tech platform now being used by several global enterprises and one of them making a strategic investment. As existing investors, we are glad to continue supporting the team at DaveAI as they venture into the next phase of growth.”

DaveAI and Elabs announce their partnership to create AI powered experiences in the Middle East

DaveAI and Elabs announce their partnership to create AI powered experiences in the Middle East

DaveAI; an AI-powered full-stack sales experience platform that bridges the gap between self-assisted online discovery & salesperson-assisted offline discovery is collaborating with Elabs; a CX-centric company that is on a mission to help businesses leverage tech to grow. The collaboration aims to achieve a strong channel and direct sales for DaveAI to deploy its products for businesses in the Middle East and build DaveAI’s brand within the GCC markets.

Potential Impact of AI in the Middle East:

Source: Great Learning/pwc

Productivity is not a sprint. It is a marathon. To incorporate this mantra when it comes to the sales department in real life seems a difficult task with the sales team racing to meet targets. Adopting a sales platform that is futuristic and a digital twin of a physical sales space helps attract sales productively. A good customer experience is a driving force behind developing a strong sales strategy and it gives the business a deep insight into customer preferences and an opportunity to tweak decisions based on the analysis.

With the power of speech & NLP, data, and intelligence, DaveAI delivers a compelling customer experience across different sectors of Retail, BFSI, Real Estate, Automobile, and Fashion. DaveAI helps brands drive sales with advanced product discovery experiences using an interactive Virtual Sales Avatar that mimics a human sales brain, understands customer requirements & provides hyper-personalized product recommendations. With conversations around the metaverse taking centre stage, it is pertinent for brands to leverage platforms like DaveAI to enable product discovery in the virtual world.

“The Middle East is investing heavily in modern technology, especially AI and AR/VR. We hope to develop new frontiers in these technologies with key partnerships.”

– Dr. Ananth, Co-founder & CTO, DaveAI

Elabs helps clients build world-class CX infrastructure with a vision that focuses on a proactive approach to customer queries, reducing redundancies, providing tailormade solutions, leveraging AI capabilities and building intelligent conversations and virtual experiences for customers. Elabs aims to leverage B2B sectoral opportunities, which tend to form a large part of the regional client base, apart from B2C sectors.

“The AI market is on the rise when it comes to the Middle East region. As a partner, we hope to build a sizeable market for DaveAI’s offering in this region and establish DaveAI Middle East as a strong player within the UAE. This will help DaveAI leverage opportunities within the Government with a bespoke solution tailored to the region and grow DaveAI’s Middle East footprint within adjoining markets such as Oman/Qatar and eventually target KSA.”

– Pradeep Mohan, Business Director, Elabs

This collaboration will enable taking DaveAI’s capabilities to enterprises in the Middle East region and help them deploy innovative, intelligent experiences for their customers. By adopting different emerging technologies, this partnership will set the base for various businesses to move forward with an ‘all tech’ mindset in the middle east region.