Gupshup augments its messaging solutions with Knowlarity’s market-leading voice solutions to consolidate its leadership in conversational engagement.

Gupshup, the global leader in conversational engagement, announced the acquisition of Knowlarity Communications. Knowlarity is a global leader in cloud communications, offering cloud telephony, contact center automation, AI-powered voice assistants and speech analytics solutions to over 6,000 customers across 65 countries. The acquisition complements Gupshup’s industry-leading Conversational Messaging suite and establishes Gupshup as the leader in voice & video communications as well. Knowlarity operates in the voice-based Conversational Engagement market, which is poised to transform contact-centers, IVR systems, and smart voice systems, accounting for a total addressable market (TAM) of nearly $18 billion1 in 2024.

Knowlarity revenues grew 50% over the previous year, while international revenues ex-India grew 100% in the same period. Knowlarity offers solutions with unparalleled reliability and intelligence that enable businesses to better engage their customers through AI-enabled voice and video solutions for improved ROI. Knowlarity’s solutions are being used across multiple industries including BFSI, Consumer Goods, IT/ITeS and Healthcare, across a variety of customer journeys covering sales and lead generation, customer service and support, automated calls, surveys and feedback, logistics and delivery, and remote work. They have industry-leading partnerships with Google Cloud for Speech Analytics and integrations with the world’s leading CRM systems like Salesforce, Freshworks, Hubspot and Zoho among others. Knowlarity has the highest number of Unicorn customers in the voice market in India.

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“Knowlarity is the clear market leader in voice – their comprehensive product suite spanning cloud telephony and contact center automation, along with excellent customer traction will further enhance Gupshup’s leadership position. I’m excited to welcome the Knowlarity team to the Gupshup family.”

“As business-to-consumer engagement becomes conversational, Gupshup is busy enabling more ways for businesses to deliver rich experiences. With the addition of Knowlarity’s products, businesses will now be able to build seamless conversational experiences across both messaging and voice channels,” said Beerud Sheth, co-founder and CEO, Gupshup. “Knowlarity is the clear market leader in voice – their comprehensive product suite spanning cloud telephony and contact center automation, along with excellent customer traction will further enhance Gupshup’s leadership position. I’m excited to welcome the Knowlarity team to the Gupshup family.”

“We at Knowlarity are excited to be a part of Gupshup. This will lead to richer experiences for our existing and future customers along with product enrichment and significant geographic expansion opportunities. Our customer-centric, innovation-focused cultures are perfectly aligned and we see significant synergies and new products emerging from the combination of two great teams,” said Yatish Mehrotra, CEO, Knowlarity.

“The need for businesses to maintain effective communication with their customers is key to building stronger and long-lasting relationships regardless of sector, stage or markets. The pandemic has only accentuated this need – and increased the demand for unified and seamless communication solutions that allow companies to connect with their customers across all channels. The coming together of Gupshup and Knowlarity creates a unique product offering for customers across geographies, cementing the leadership position that both businesses have attained in the space of conversational engagement and cloud-based communications. As early believers in Knowlarity, Sequoia India continues to remain excited about this sector. We are thrilled about this milestone and look forward to an enduring partnership,” said Sandeep Kher, Director, Sequoia Capital India and South East Asia.

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“Our investment and journey with Knowlarity over the years continues to strengthen our belief that India produces world class SaaS businesses. Gupshup and Knowlarity are a natural fit. We would like to congratulate the teams at Gupshup and Knowlarity and wish them all the very best as they form a strong partnership in the years to come,” said Subeer Monga, Partner, Mayfield India.

“Customers want to be able to communicate with enterprises in text, voice, and other channels of choice. Knowlarity is the pioneer of enterprise telephony in emerging markets. Gupshup is the market leader in messaging. Gupshup’s acquisition of Knowlarity creates the largest and most advanced communication leader in the fast-growing emerging market economies,” said Ambarish Gupta, co-founder of Knowlarity.

In 2021, Gupshup became a Unicorn with a valuation of $1.4 billion and raised $340 million from Tiger Global, Fidelity Management and Research Co. LLC and other marquee global investors. This is Gupshup’s second acquisition in the last four months, following the acquisition of Dotgo, the world’s leading RCS (Rich Communications Services) platform.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of February 2022, subject to completion of customary closing conditions. DC Advisory acted as the sole financial advisor to Knowlarity on the transaction.