Niki is an artificial intelligence company headquartered in
Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded in May 2015 by
IIT Kharagpur graduates Sachin Jaiswal, Keshav Prawasi, Shishir Modi and Nitin Babel.
The Niki android app was launched for a limited beta in June 2015, then released for public during YourStory's TechSparks 2015, and is a Tech30 company. The company raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Unilazer Ventures, a Mumbai-based VC firm founded by
Ronnie Screwvala, in October 2015. This was followed by another seed funding round by
Ratan Tata in May 2016. The company then raised US$2 million in Series A round of funding from SAP.iO, existing investors and some US and Germany-based investors, among others. Niki.ai shut down in Oct 2021 as per media reports. Website not working.
Product
The product is an
artificial intelligence-powered
chatbot which works as an
intelligent personal assistant, named Niki. Leveraging
natural language processing
Natural language processing (NLP) is an interdisciplinary subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human language, in particular how to program computers to pro ...
and
machine learning, Niki presents a chat-based
natural language user interface to the users where they can interact with Niki in their
natural language
In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...
. Niki understands how users chat in India, deciphers the words, in the context of product/services that they would like to purchase, and comes up with apt recommendations.
Initially, it was only available on the
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
platform as a
mobile app. The company has expanded its operations to the
Facebook Messenger and Apple iOS platforms. The company aims to soon be present on more messaging platforms like
Slack
Slack may refer to:
Places
* Slack, West Yorkshire, a village in Calderdale, England
* The Slack, a village in County Durham, England
* Slack (river), a river in Pas-de-Calais department, France
* Slacks Creek, Queensland, a suburb of Logan City, ...
and
WhatsApp.
The company currently provides 20+ services to over 2 million consumers, covering a wide spectrum ranging from utility services like mobile recharge, bill payments, travel services like cabs, buses, hotels and entertainment services like movies and events. Services such as flights and healthcare are also planned.
Partnerships
In September 2017,
Infosys Finacle joined with Niki.ai to provide chat-based service to banking customers.
In August 2017, Niki partnered with LazyPay to enable a 'buy now, pay later' feature for its users.
References
External links
*
Blog* {{Medium.com, niki.ai, niki.ai
SAP.IO
Applications of artificial intelligence
Natural language processing
Applied machine learning