Voice AI company Vernacular.ai rebrands to Skit, secures Series B round of USD 23 million from WestBridge Capital

• The fresh capital will help enhance Skit's voice technology, developing personalised solutions while making strategic headway in global markets, like the US
• WestBridge Capital joins existing investors, including Exfinity Ventures and Kalaari Capital, amongst others, to accelerate the company's rapid growth

NEW YORK and BANGALORE, India, Sept. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading voice AI company, Skit formerly known as Vernacular.ai, has secured USD 23 million as part of its Series B funding, to fuel the next level of growth and product evolution. The investment was led by WestBridge Capital with participation from Kalaari Capital and Exfinity Ventures, Angelist syndicate led by Aaryaman Vir Shah from Prophetic Ventures and Letsventure syndicate led by Sense AI. The capital will be used for sales & marketing, building delivery capabilities, R&D to speed up innovation and further enhance the company's products while expanding globally.

The fundraising follows a Series A announcement in May 2020, led by Exfinity Ventures and Kalaari Capital, AngelList, with IAN Fund and LetsVenture also participating in the round. This Series B funding brings the startup's total raise to USD 30 million. The company plans to double down and scale operations in both Indian and global markets. Since the last fundraise, Skit has been able to increase its revenue and customer growth by over 4x building a strong partner network across industries such as banking, insurance, ecommerce, consumer durables, travel & logistics, among others. The company has strengthened its workforce by over 6x to prepare for future growth.

Commenting on the capital raise, Sourabh Gupta, CEO and Co-founder of Skit said, "This investment comes when we are making strategic inroads into the US and SouthEast Asian markets. Clients and investors alike have recognized the uniqueness and superiority of our product and continue to show confidence in our growth path. The global contact center market size is expected to grow steadily and reach a value of 496 billion US dollars by 2027. To address this sizable growth, we at Skit are using voice bot innovation and our market observations to personalize caller experiences at customer contact centers, and deliver upto 50% cost reduction and superior customer experience. We are driven by the passion of our clients and our team to change the way businesses interact with their customers."

"We are delighted to back Sourabh and Akshay as they continue to help global companies transform how customer service is delivered. Skit's success in helping India's largest companies, positions them well to enter the US market where there is a massive need for voice AI solutions," stated Sashi Reddi, Venture Advisor to Westbridge Capital.

With the fresh funding, Skit will potentially address the over $300 billion voice customer service market globally with its AI-based voice automation platform - Vernacular Intelligent Voice Assistant (VIVA). VIVA helps enterprises improve engagement strategies by utilizing speech recognition and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technology. With over 10 million hours of training data, VIVA has been deployed to help enterprises boost customer stickiness and loyalty through a deep understanding of the customer's context and intent. Skit was founded in 2016 by IIT Roorkee alumnus, Sourabh Gupta and Akshay Deshraj.

About Skit

Skit is an AI-first SaaS voice automation company. Its suite of speech and language solutions enable enterprises to automate their call center operations. With over 10 million hours of training data, its product - Vernacular Intelligent Voice Assistant (VIVA) can currently respond in over 16+ languages, covering over 160+ dialects and replicating human-like conversations. Skit serves a variety of enterprise clients across diverse sectors such as banking and financial services, including insurance, securities and NBFCs, food and beverage, ecommerce, automotive, and travel and tourism. Few prominent clients include Axis Bank, Hathway, Porter and Barbeque Nation. In May 2020, the Bangalore based start-up secured its Series A funding of USD 5.1 million and recently raised a Series B round of USD 23 million, and has grown to over 150 employees. The company has been featured as one of the top-notch start-ups in the Cisco Launchpad's Cohort 6, and is a part of the World Economic Forum's Global Innovators Community. The voice AI leader has also been listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia start-ups 2021 for its remarkable industry innovation, and recently been awarded 'Tech Startup of the Year' in Artificial Intelligence 2021 by Entrepreneur India, further underscoring its market dominance and unparalleled expertise. The company is now expanding in the United States and Southeast Asian markets in a bid to take its unique platform to global enterprises.

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