Singapore tourism board picks AI startup Agara for accelerator programme

Singapore tourism board has chosen New York headquartered business-to-consumer (B2C) communication provider Agara for its accelerator programme.

The programme aims to boost the development of innovative solutions and launch startup-corporate pilots with industry players like Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Airlines and Jewel Changi Airport among others.

PM Labs, which owns and operates Agara, was founded in 2017 by Abhimanyu Singh. Agara uses advanced voice artificial intelligence (AI) to process customer support calls in real-time. It can process calls entirely autonomously or provide live suggestions to a human agent. 

Agara has raised $3 million in total funding so far. It is backed by venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins, RTP Global, and Blume Ventures.

Agara was chosen from a pool of over 100 startups and will undergo a two-month accelerator programme, followed by four months of pilot implementation with selected industry partners, according to a statement. 

The accelerator includes an intensive programme to build critical market entry skills, pilot design and implementation skills, fundraising strategies via workshops, 1:1 mentoring, and expert feedback, among others.

The STA has also appointed Found8 as its corporate innovation partner during the programme.

“Agara is operating at the forefront of real-time voice AI capabilities. We are excited to share those capabilities with the highly regarded travel and hospitality ecosystem of Singapore. We hope to bring our technology to improve the experience of customers around the world, especially as we navigate through the unique challenges of the post-Covid-19 world,” Singh said.

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Founded in 2012 by Grace Sai and Michelle Yong, Found8 offers six innovation campuses with over 1,000 members across Singapore and Malaysia. It has helped over 90 corporations in their innovation journeys and houses two in-house venture capital funds that invest in early-stage tech companies. The company is also Google for Startups’ first partner in southeast Asia.