Niki.ai raises funds from SAP

Niki.ai, an Artifical Intelligence (AI) startup, founded by four IIT Kharagpur alumni in December last year has raised funding from global leader in business management software, SAP. Niki.ai uses AI to get people to ‘shop on chat’. It was initially started as a chatbot that leveraged AI and natural language programming (NLP) to help users book cabs and make online recharges over chat.

Niki.ai raised close to INR30 million from Haresh Chawla, partner at India Value Fund Advisors, with existing investor Unilazer Ventures also participating in the round. The company has boasts of a personal investment from Ratan Tata.

The investment by SAP was made through SAP.iO Fund which was seeded with an initial investment of US$35 million to make early-stage investments in software startups that will expand the SAP ecosystem.

According to SAP’s website, “The fund is just one component of the SAP.iO open innovation model, which enables innovators both inside and outside SAP to use the power of SAP data, application programming interfaces (APIs) and platform technologies to unlock new value for customers.”

The first startup to receive funding from SAP.iO is Parable Sciences, Inc. (known as Paradata), a Big Data analytics company based in San Jose, California.