After pivot to conversational AI, Magiclane raises Series A funding

After pivoting from artificial-intelligence-based task management to conversational AI, Bengaluru-based Magiclane has raised $3 million (Rs 21.2 crore) in a Series A round led by IDFC Parampara Fund. 

While Magiclane’s MagicX platform executed consumer-facing task management, the firm’s Verloop platform deals in conversational AI for marketing, sales, customer support, celebrity brand management and more.

In the current Series A round, other investors include Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys co-founder, and Dr Ranjan Pai, chairman of Manipal Education and Medical Group, who were investors in MagicX, which ceased operations in 2016 for pivot to conversational AI.

“Our conversational automation platform already works with more than 5,000 clients across 37 countries. This investment is a striking endorsement from some of the savviest and most well-known names in the start-up and tech ecosystem and comes at a time when we are continuing to hire top talent and build further traction for the business,” Gaurav Singh, founder and chief executive of Verloop, said in a statement. Singh is an electronics and communication engineer from Jabalpur Engineering College, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, according to professional networking site LinkedIn. The company will use the money for expanding its team and operations for the global market.

The company, which is a part of venture-builder platform GrowthStory run by serial entrepreneurs and husband-wife duo K Ganesh and Meena Ganesh, currently supports seven Indian languages. The platform helps brands engage in AI-backed conversational experience with users and has a patent-pending technology for bot-to-human handoff of conversations. 

Verloop’s clients include beauty app Nykaa, handmade products marketplace Qtrove, online jewellery platform Pipa Bella, home healthcare services provider Portea Medical, Apollo Munich Health Insurance and Aadhaar Bridge, which enables Aadhaar authentication services.

Launched in 2016, Verloop was also a part of US-based Y Combinator Startup School in 2017 and has contributed through its machine learning platform to MIT Machine Learning libraries, Facebook ML libraries and others.

Verloop’s competitors include Ratan Tata-backed Niki.ai, which has signed on enterprise clients to create chatbots for them.