Speech recognition solutions firm Uniphore raises funding from Kris Gopalakrishnan, others

Chennai-based Indian language speech recognition solutions firm Uniphore Software Systems Pvt Ltd has raised an undisclosed amount in Series A round of funding from Infosys' co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, according to a press release. This round also saw participation from existing investors.

The funding will be used for Uniphore's global expansion and product & core technology development plans.

"Man-machine communication is one of the more complex problems to solve. Uniphore's vision lends possibility of finding a solution to this problem and the company has already made substantial progress," said Gopalakrishnan.

"Kris' experience in building mammoth and global businesses will help us move in the right direction. This investment is an endorsement of Uniphore's ability to provide value to our enterprise customers across industries through speech recognition technology. Additionally, these Series A funds help us attract the best talent the industry has to offer in this high-tech niche," said Umesh Sachdev, co-founder and CEO, Uniphore.

Uniphore was started in 2008 by Sachdev and Ravi Saraogi (COO), both alumni of Jaypee University of Information Technology (Himachal Pradesh). The company, which has offices in India, Philippines and the UAE, employs 81 people.

Last year, Uniphore raised an undisclosed amount led by Nagaraja Prakasam and MV Subramanian - both members of Indian Angel Network (IAN). Other investors like YourNest Angel Fund and Analog Devices Inc's co-founder Ray Stata also participated in the round.

Its other investors include IDG Ventures India, YourNest Angel Fund, IIT Madras' Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI), Villgro Innovations Foundation and the National Research Development Corporation.

After retiring from the board of Infosys in October 2014, Gopalakrishnan has been looking to invest in technology startups. In February this year, he invested in Retailworx Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates food and vegetable retailing startup Freshworld, along with IAN.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)