Reliance acquires AI firm Haptik for Rs. 700 crore

Reliance Industries’ subsidiary Reliance Jio Digital Services (RJDSL) has entered into a business transfer agreement with Haptik InfoTech, India’s leading conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform. The transaction size is estimated to be Rs. 700 crore with Rs. 230 crore as consideration for the initial business transfer and the balance for growth and expansion. The acquisition will result in Reliance holding 87 per cent of the business and Haptik founders and employees holding the remaining 13 per cent via stock option grants.

Reliance has made the investment with the ambition to create India’s largest AI assistant company across chat, voice and vernacular languages. The transaction will enable Reliance Jio to leverage Haptik’s capabilities across various devices and touchpoints in the consumer journey. The investment focus is on enhancement and expansion of the platform which has an addressable market of over 1 billion users in India. Haptik’s enterprise-grade business will also get a boost from this partnership, with the company continuing to build innovative AI solutions for corporates, globally. Reliance management believes that voice interactivity will be the primary mode of interaction for Digital India.

On Thursday, Reliance was trading at Rs.1,377.9 per share, up 0.25 per cent on the BSE.