Kalaari Capital invests in Singapore-based fintech startup

Singapore-based fintech startup Active.ai using has raised $3 million in funding from IDG Ventures India and Kalaari Capital. The company uses artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver virtual assistant banking services. The fundings will be used to enhance its product development and build out advanced AI features. Founded by Ravishankar, Shankar Narayanan, and Parikshit Paspulati, Active.ai has gained significant traction with banks across Asia, added revenue and built a team of experts in banking technology and AI.

Commenting on the investment, Ravishankar, CEO, and Co-Founder said, “Conversation is the new UX and with banks opening up APIs, a new era of digital business is emerging. We are moving from ‘Mobile First’ to ‘AI first’ and Active.ai is the platform facilitating banks to achieve that.”

“Active.ai is helping banks redefine their digital strategy for the future, bringing in automation and intelligent customer engagement to banking and payments. The company’s intelligent and built for banking technology uses advanced NLP and machine intelligence to enable customers to have natural dialogues over messaging, voice or IOT devices,” added Shankar Narayanan, COO, and Co-Founder.

“43% of worldwide mobile phone consumers with a bank account use mobile banking today. The new generation of banking customers is looking for easy, secure and seamless interaction with their financial services provider. IDG Ventures India believes that AI will completely transform the banking industry, and we are very excited to partner with Active.ai to build the world’s largest conversational banking platform,” said Sanat Rao, IDG Ventures.

Bala Srinivasa, Kalaari Capital said, “Messaging based mobile banking has become a strategic imperative for banks globally to enhance consumer experience and lower customer engagement costs. Active.ai is poised to tap into this large market opportunity with its chat and AI powered mobile customer engagement solution. Kalaari is excited to back this founding team given their past track record, banking domain knowledge, and deep technology expertise.”