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Conversation Cloud Solutions provider Gupshup announces India’s first Conversational Buyer App for ONDC

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Beta showcase to support commerce and food ordering on WhatsApp

MUMBAI, India, June 26, 2024 — Gupshup, the world’s leading Conversation Cloud has announced India’s very first Conversational Buyer App on the ONDC network, at their flagship event Conversations 2024 in Delhi. It enables buyers to use a WhatsApp-based conversational UI to discover, browse, and buy products from sellers across the ONDC network, without needing to download any other mobile app. Soon, Gupshup will also offer this product capability to its enterprise customers that want to integrate conversational commerce into their chatbots. This launch demonstrates the perfect alignment of Gupshup’s vision of a conversational internet with ONDC’s mission of democratizing digital commerce.

India’s diverse population uses different mobile tools, varied languages, and possesses different levels of tech-savvy. But they all know how to chat via WhatsApp. Delivering conversational experiences via the messaging app is the only way to reach everyone. Gupshup’s Buyer App on ONDC brings the vast commerce network to users nationwide, usable in any language, quickly and easily. This will truly transform digital commerce on a population scale in India.” said Beerud Sheth, CEO, Gupshup.

More than 650 million Indians are now active on social media and messaging platforms. Despite this massive engagement, only 30% of users (approximately 200 mn) shop online. And a whopping 50% of the remaining 450 million haven’t even used any apps beyond social media and entertainment. Furthermore, 65% of savvy digital users find app downloads frustrating and 40% abandon a purchase if pushed to install apps.

“Gupshup Conversation Cloud makes it easy for businesses to build rich conversational commerce experiences with AI-powered natural language interactions, in any language, over text and voice, with deep personalization, across the entire customer lifecycle. This ONDC Buyer App is the perfect demonstration of the significant impact of conversational experiences and the unique ability of Gupshup’s platform to enable them”, said Gaurav Kachhawa, Chief Product Officer at Gupshup. 

The Buyer App is in Beta and will initially have limited availability, allowing users to order food & beverages like biryani on WhatsApp. Customers will be able to share their location over chat, browse sellers close to them, order food, and make payments right from WhatsApp. Support for additional conversational channels such as Google RCS and Voice is also coming soon. With these capabilities, merchants, and businesses looking to participate in the ONDC eCommerce ecosystem can leverage the Gupshup ONDC Commerce Platform and speed up their time to market.

ONDC, which stands for Open Network for Digital Commerce, is a collaborative initiative that brings together various merchants and brands on a unified digital commerce platform. This interconnected network was developed by the Indian government’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. The primary goal of ONDC is to foster an open and inclusive e-commerce ecosystem in India.

According to various reports, the initiative has seen significant traction since its official introduction in January 2023. It has processed over 49.79 million transactions to date with transportation services, particularly ride-hailing apps like Namma Yatri accounting for more than half of the monthly order volume. Among other sectors, the food and beverages category is another one experiencing rapid expansion.

To understand how Gupshup is building an inclusive e-commerce ecosystem with ONDC, watch this video.

About Gupshup

Gupshup is the world’s leading Conversation Cloud that enables businesses to advertise, communicate, and converse with their customers by leveraging AI and CPaaS. Gupshup’s conversational engagement solutions enable 45,000+ brands across India, Latin America, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the United States to deliver better customer experience, and increased revenue while saving costs. Citibank, AkzoNobel, Khan Academy, Unilever, Dream11, Netflix, Flipkart, and Ola are a few of its leading clients. With an industry-trained Conversational AI platform and real-time unified profiles, Gupshup powers over 10 billion messages per month. Valued at $1.4 billion, the company has marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Fidelity Management and Research Co. LLC, and others on its cap table.

Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/gupshup-announces-indias-first-conversational-buyer-app-for-ondc-302181839.html

This News has been Published in Partnership with PR Newswire

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Barn2Door Secures Growth Funding From Decathlon Capital Partners

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Software company utilizes a flexible, revenue-based funding package to support growth and expansion without dilution

Barn2Door,Inc. a rapidly-growing software company focused on helping farmers sell direct to market, has landed a significant investment from Decathlon Capital Partners. Details of the revenue-based funding transaction were not disclosed.

“We’re looking forward to working with Decathlon, as we know their team understands our goal to make selling direct-to-market a breeze for our current farmer partners, in addition to the many to come.” – James Maiocco, Barn2Door COO

Headquartered in Nashville, Barn2Door will use the funding to expand its investment in new platform functionality and expand its go-to-market and customer service functions. Barn2Door is an all-in-one business solution platform that allows farmers to promote their own brand, sell online or in-person, and save time managing their business.

Janelle Maiocco, Chief Executive Officer of Barn2Door, said Barn2Door aims to make accessing Farm products as easy as possible for buyers. “Our solution enables farmers to sell anytime, anywhere, and to anyone, whether they be wholesale or retail purchasers,” Maiocco said. “We want farmers to build a thriving business. We offer software and services to help Farmers grow their brand, and develop go-to-market strategies informed by best practices and data insights captured from millions of buyers.”

James Maiocco, Chief Operating Officer of Barn2Door, said Barn2Door will repay its investment from Decathlon Capital Partners through its future revenues, thanks to the dilution-free funding package. “We’re looking forward to working with Decathlon, as we know their team understands our goal to make selling direct-to-market a breeze for our current farmer partners, in addition to the many to come,” Maiocco said.

John Borchers, Managing Director of Decathlon Capital Partners, said Decathlon looks forward to supporting Barn2Door as the company continues to grow. “Barn2Door is already serving thousands of farms throughout the United States,” Borchers said. “Decathlon can’t wait to watch the growth trajectory of their software platform as more farmers will take advantage of this easy-to-use solution.”

About Barn2Door
Barn2Door offers software for Independent Farmers to create and promote their brand, sell online and in-person, and save time managing their business. Built for Farmers, Barn2Door enables Farmers to make their products available across all channels and simplify order management. Serving 1000’s of Farms across all 50 States, Barn2Door has become the largest vertical commerce solution exclusively serving Farmers. With data insights gathered across millions of orders, Barn2Door continues to debut innovations to help Farmers increase sales, attract more buyers, and save time.

About Decathlon Capital Partners
Decathlon Capital Partners provides growth capital for companies seeking alternatives to traditional equity investment. Through the use of highly customized revenue-based financing solutions, Decathlon provides long-term growth capital without the dilution, loss of control and operational overhead that often comes with equity-based funding. With offices in Palo Alto and Park City, Decathlon is the largest revenue-based funding investor in the U.S. and is active across a wide range of sectors.

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Managed Wi-Fi solutions provider Airties Opens Software Innovation Center in Bangalore, India for Smart Wi-Fi

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  • New center in Bangalore aims to enhance AI, Cloud, & DevOps capabilities of Airties

Airties, a global leader of managed Wi-Fi solutions for broadband service providers, today announced it has opened its first office in India a new R&D center based in Bangalore, focused on enhancing the AI, cloud, and DevOps capabilities of Airties for use in Smart Wi-Fi deployments.

Airties, headquartered in Paris, France, currently has other significant offices in Belgium, Turkey, and the United States, and employs approximately 400 people around the globe. The new center in India aims to employ around 100 specialized software engineers focused on further extending the capabilities of Airties Cloud management platform. To mark the occasion, the company recently held an official office opening ceremony in Bangalore attended by Metin Taskin, CEO and founder of Airties; Sachin Chickballapur, CTO of Airties; Mujdat Pakkan, Executive Vice President of Engineering; Siddharth Das, General Manager of Airties in India; and local dignitaries including Dr. Ashwath Narayan C. N., Honorable Member of Legislative Assembly, Karnataka, former Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka and Minister of Electronics, Information Technology – Biotechnology, Science and Technology, Higher Education, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood in Government of Karnataka.

“At Airties, we recognize that our success at enabling leading ISPs to innovate and differentiate comes directly from our ongoing commitment to software R&D,” said Metin Taskin, CEO and founder of Airties. “Our new, world-class software innovation center in Bangalore aims to attract the very best engineers interested in applying their skills to enhance the broadband experience for fiber, cable, and fixed wireless providers the world over.”

“The huge talent pool in India for AI, data science, cloud-native software development, and DevOps will allow us to build an exceptional team that will address our rich feature roadmap, working closely with the other Airties teams, partners and customers worldwide,” said Sachin Chickballapur, CTO of Airties.

Airties’ unique hybrid cloud-edge software architecture leverages both the embedded intelligence in customer premises equipment and the cloud to maximize responsiveness and home Wi-Fi performance. Airties software portfolio includes Airties Edge, smart Wi-Fi software for gateways/routers/extenders, which intelligently directs consumers’ devices (laptops, tablets, phones, game consoles, IoT, smart home devices, etc.) to the best available Wi-Fi access point and frequency band based on real-time network conditions. The software, based on industry standard Wi-Fi EasyMesh™, can also turn existing home gateways into an intelligent Wi-Fi mesh access point, improving the quality and stability of connectivity within the home. Airties Cloud helps monitor and orchestrate Wi-Fi across homes, optimizes broadband gateways and mesh extenders to ensure a better quality of experience, delivers insights on connected devices, and provides APIs to power operator’s customer facing support apps. Airties Orbit, is a continuous test automation platform for broadband service providers, customer premises equipment (CPE) manufacturers, and system-on-chip (SoC) manufacturers to support Smart Wi-Fi integrations and deployments.

Airties has been recognized with many prestigious industry awards, including: “Best Home Wi-Fi Solution Award” from Broadband World Forum; “Best Wi-Fi Service Provider Solution” and “Best Home Wi-Fi Product” awards from Wi-Fi NOW; “Best Wi-Fi Innovation” and “Best-In Home Wi-Fi Network” awards from Wireless Broadband Alliance; “Best Broadband Customer Experience” from Cable & Satellite International; and many others. Additional information about Airties can be found at: www.airties.com.

About Airties
Airties is a leading provider of managed Wi-Fi solutions to operators around the globe. The Smart Wi-Fi portfolio from Airties includes Airties Edge, smart Wi-Fi software for gateways; Airties Cloud management platform and its companion app; Airties Orbit, a continuous test automation platform; and Wi-Fi mesh extenders. Operators turn to Airties for the design, implementation, and ongoing optimization of their customers’ broadband experience. Airties’ customers include AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Sky, Telia, Telstra, T-Mobile US, Vodafone, and many others.

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Singapore and Indonesia-based RHAD, a Dog Digital Partner, Expands into the Indian Market with a Focus on Creative Storytelling and AR

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RHAD, a leading creative and technology agency and partner of Dog Digital, today announced its expansion into the Indian market. The Singapore and Indonesia-based agency will leverage its expertise in creative storytelling and augmented reality (AR) to empower brands in India.

“We are thrilled to bring RHAD’s unique blend of creativity and technology to the dynamic Indian market,” said Hrishit Trivedi, Chief Storyteller, India, at RHAD India. “India is a hub for innovation, and we see immense potential for AR and creative storytelling to help brands connect with audiences in a more meaningful way.”

Kutbuddin Patanwala, Business Lead, India, at RHAD, added, “I am excited about our future plans to drive growth by enhancing revenue for our clients through our advanced AR/VR digital solutions. We aim to expand our presence, diversify our services, and form strategic partnerships, ensuring we meet our clients’ evolving needs and achieve sustainable success in India.”

RHAD will focus on offering a wide range of services to clients in India, including:

  • Creative Strategy and Development: The agency will help brands develop creative concepts and campaigns that capture attention and drive results.
  • Content Marketing: RHAD.Agency will create engaging content that educates, entertains, and inspires audiences.
  • AR Development: The agency will leverage its expertise in AR to create innovative experiences that allow consumers to interact with brands in new ways.

About RHAD

RHAD, a Singapore-based creative and technology agency, in partnership with Dog Digital (UK) helps businesses accelerate their digital journey and helps brands connect with audiences in a meaningful way. The agency offers a wide range of services, including creative strategy, content marketing, and AR development.

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