Singapore startup raises US$3M to let bank clients talk to an AI assistant

By Yon Heong Tung for e27

Singapore-based fintech startup Active.ai has raised US$3 million from IDG Ventures India and Kalaari Capital.

It aims to use the newly-raised capital to accelerate the development of more advanced AI features for its platform.

Founded by Ravishankar, Shankar Narayanan and Parikshit Paspulati, Active.ai develops intelligent virtual assistants for financial service institutions. These virtual assistants come in the form of bots, SMS or voice API’s.

Customers that leverage on this automated AI-enabled service can get their queries and businesses handled much quicker than traditional means such as via telephone.

“Conversation is the new UX, and with banks opening up APIs, a new era of digital business is emerging. We are moving from ‘Mobile First’ to ‘AI first’, and Active.ai is the platform facilitating banks to achieve that,” said Ravishankar, in a press statement.

Sanad Rano of IDG Ventures added that, “43 per cent of worldwide mobile phone consumers with a bank account use mobile banking today. The new generation of banking customers are looking for easy, secure and seamless interaction with their financial services provider.”

First appeared at e27