Reliance Jio acquires Haptik AI platform for Rs 700 crore

Reliance Industries has announced that its subsidiary Reliance Jio has acquired Haptik one of the world's largest conversational AI platforms for about Rs. 700 crore.

The transaction size (including the investment for growth and expansion) includes Rs. 230 crore as the consideration for the initial business transfer.

Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio, said, "This strategic investment underlines our commitment to further boost the digital ecosystem and provide Indian users conversational AI enabled devices with multi-lingual capabilities. We believe voice interactivity will be the primary mode of interaction for Digital India. We are delighted to announce this partnership, and 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."

Reliance will hold about 87 percent of the business, with the rest being held by Haptik's founders and employees via stock options.

With this transaction enables Reliance Jio will leverage Haptik's capabilities across various devices and touch points in the consumer's journey.

Furthermore, the investment focus is on the enhancement and expansion of the platform, with an addressable market opportunity of over 1 billion users in India.

Aakrit Vaish, Co-Founder & CEO, Haptik said, "We started with the idea that conversational interfaces will cause a paradigm shift in the way people get things done. Over the course, we have built various products across both consumer and enterprise businesses, with the backbone always being a full stack chat and voice-enabled AI technology platform. We truly 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. We look forward to using this strategic opportunity to exponentially scale up the business across various product lines."