Gupshup acquires Bengaluru-based conversational AI provider AskSid

The acquisition strengthens Gupshup's AI-powered conversational solutions for e-commerce, retail and consumer goods industries

Gupshup, a leader in conversational engagement, said that it has acquired AskSid, a conversational AI provider to top ecommerce and retail companies around the world. AskSid’s full-stack AI solution including the Retail AI brain, strengthens Gupshup’s customer experience (CX) offerings and will help make the entire shopping journey - across pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase phases - fully conversational. The companies did not reveal the value of the transaction.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, AskSid is helping many global brands like AkzoNobel, Danone, Wolford, Akris and Himalaya Wellness deliver impactful shopping experiences to customers through AI-powered conversations, driving faster sales. The tech startup has operations in over 25 countries and supports over 100 languages. By automating 92 per cent of support conversations with a self-service model, AskSid customers have reported an average 25 per cent reduction in operational expenditure, while boosting order conversion rate by 30 per cent.  

“Conversational commerce is about to transform shopping, both online and offline. Gupshup is building the most comprehensive conversational commerce solution and AskSid’s deep-domain AI offering will help us bring even more advanced capabilities to ecommerce and retail businesses worldwide”, said Beerud Sheth, co-founder and CEO, Gupshup. “We welcome the AskSid team onboard and look forward to collaborating with major brands across the world to enable next-gen shopping experiences.”

Per a recent report by McKinsey, ecommerce could grow up to 5x faster compared to pre-pandemic times. “This presents a huge opportunity for retail and ecommerce brands - but only if they are able to provide expert guidance anytime, anywhere to their consumers, which is exactly what AskSid delivers”, said Sanjoy Roy, co-founder and CEO, AskSid. “Together with Gupshup, we will help businesses drive richer conversational experiences.”

“We are very happy to join forces with Gupshup and look forward to helping more brands personalize their shopping experiences at scale,” said Dinesh Sharma, Co-founder and CTO, AskSid.

AskSid’s angel investors include well-known technology leaders Rajan Anandan (ex-Google), Krishnakumar Natarajan (ex-Mindtree), Parthasarathy NS (ex-Mindtree) and Radha R (ex-Microsoft and Mindtree). The AI startup is also backed by Techstars (first institutional investor in AskSid), a global seed accelerator that mentors some of the world’s most successful startups.  

"AskSid’s retail-specific models help global retail brands deliver impactful shopping experiences to their consumers. I am impressed with AskSid's powerful AI capabilities and their ability to acquire global brands so readily”, said Vijay Tirathrai, Managing Director at Techstars. “The merger with Gupshup is the next logical step and a great strategic fit as their deep vertical AI expertise in retail now gets augmented by Gupshup on a global scale in CPaaS and CX, delivering immense value to enterprise customers."

This month Gupshup, also acquired Active.Ai, the leading conversational AI platform used by banks and fintech firms. The acquisition strengthens Gupshup’s customer experience (CX) solutions for BFSI customers.

Last year in September, Gupshup acquired New Jersey-based Dotgo, a rich communications system (RCS) business messaging (RBM) player, for geographical and business expansion.