Yellow.ai, formerly Yellow Messenger, is a multinational company headquartered in San Mateo, California focused on customer service automation.[2] It was founded in 2016 and provides an AI platform for automating customer support experiences across chat and voice. The platform supports more than 135 languages across more than 35 channels.[3][4]

Yellow.ai
FormerlyYellow Messenger
Company typePrivately held company
IndustrySoftware
Founded2016 in Bangalore, India
FounderRaghu Ravinutala
Jayakishore Gollareddy
Rashid Khan
Headquarters,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Number of employees
650+ (2024[1])
ParentBitonic Technology Labs Pvt. Ltd.
Websiteyellow.ai

History

edit

Yellow.ai was founded in 2016 by Raghu Ravinutala, Jaya Kishore Reddy Gollareddy, and Rashid Khan in Bangalore, India. Raghavendra Ravinutala and Jaya Kishore Reddy Gollareddy left their full-time jobs to establish Yellow.ai, and they met Rashid Khan at a college hackathon, where he began working with them. By January 2016, Yellow.ai had acquired 50,000 customers.[5] The same year, the company rolled out a model of the application for B2B companies. This version of the software and platform was intended to support voice and chat interactions for enterprises.[6] In 2016, the company joined Microsoft's accelerator program and SAP Startup Studio.[7][8]

In April 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company developed chatbots to assist governments with vaccinations.[9] It launched Yellow Messenger Care to create omnichannel chatbots related to COVID-19 assistance, which helped NGOs and hospitals in their crisis management efforts.[10] In June 2021, the company rebranded itself from Yellow Messenger to Yellow.ai.[11] In 2022, Yellow.ai launched DynamicNLP, which was designed to eliminate the necessity for NLP model training.[12] In 2023, Yellow.ai announced the launch of its Dynamic Automation Platform (DAP) and revealed a new logo as part of a larger rebranding strategy.[13] The company also launched YellowG, a generative AI platform for automation workflows.[14] The company deployed over 120 generative AI bots for businesses in 2023.[2]

Partnership and client base

edit

In January 2019, the company collaborated with Microsoft to work on transforming its voice automation using Azure Al Speech Services and Natural language processing (NLP) tools.[15] In February 2022, the company partnered with Tech Mahindra to develop enterprise AI technology.[16] It partnered with the e-commerce company Unicommerce in July 2020.[17] In February 2022, Edelweiss General Insurance launched its AI Voice Bot, using Yellow.ai's technology.[18] Yellow.ai implemented its AI-based customer service technology in Urja, a virtual assistant launched by the public sector company BPCL.[19] The company has also formed partnerships with Accenture, Infosys, TCS, and Wipro.[20][21]

Its clients include Sony,[22] Flipkart, Grab, Skoda, Honda, Domino's Pizza, Bajaj Finance, Volkswagen, HDFC Bank, Ferrellgas, Indigo, Adani Capital,[23] Haldiram, Lulu Group, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Concentrix.[24][25][26]

Funding

edit

In June 2019, Yellow.ai completed a series A funding of $4 million led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and angel investors such as Phanindra Sama, founder of RedBus, Anand Swaminathan, senior partner, McKinsey & Company, Limeroad founder Prashant Malik, and Snapdeal founder Kunal Bahl.[27]

In April 2020, it raised $20 million in a series B round led by Lightspeed Ventures Partners and Lightspeed India Partners.[28] In August 2021, the company raised $78.15 million in its Series C funding round led by WestBridge Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.[29] The company has raised a total of $102 million so far.[30]

Awards

edit

The company won the Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leadership Award in 2021.[31] Entrepreneur magazine named Yellow.ai the Best AI Startup of the Year at the Entrepreneur India Startup Awards 2022.[32] It was awarded Best Chat/Conversational Bot/Tool during the MarTech Leadership Summit 2022.[33] The Financial Express awarded it the Best Use of Conversational AI – Gold at the Financial Express FuTech Awards in 2022.[34] The company received an honorable mention in the automation solution of the Year category at the CCW Excellence Awards 2022.[35]

Forbes magazine added Yellow.ai's co-founder Rashid Khan to Forbes India 30 Under 30 2022[36] and Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 2022[37] lists, as one of the young gamechangers disrupting the Enterprise Technology industry. Hurun Research Institute listed the company in its 'Future Unicorn Index 2022' list for India.[38] In 2023, co-founder & CEO, Raghu Ravinutala was recognized as one of the top 50 SaaS CEOs by The Software Report.[39] Yellow.ai ranked 13th in the Bay Area and 88th nationally on the 2023 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for North America.[40]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Ghosh, Debangana (October 18, 2022). "Conversational AI start-up Yellow.ai rolls out ESOP worth $43 million". Moneycontrol.com.
  2. ^ a b Roy, Annapurna (January 23, 2024). "Yellow.ai deploys 30% of global generative AI bots domestically". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  3. ^ Andersen, Ted (September 6, 2021). "This AI company's chatbot speaks 120 languages and is still learning more". Bizjournals.
  4. ^ Rizvi, Muzaffar (September 10, 2021). "AI-led automation set to fuel yellow.ai expansion globally". Khaleej Times.
  5. ^ Roy, Debroop (June 2, 2020). "Using Artificial Intelligence, This Start-Up Is Helping Enterprises Connect Better". Entrepreneur. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  6. ^ Bardhan, Saptak (February 9, 2023). "Artificial Intelligence Take-Over". Entrepreneur. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  7. ^ Purkayastha, Banasree (June 23, 2022). "Yellow.AI: Offering human touch to overcome hurdles of platform and language". The Financial Express.
  8. ^ Khedekarmar, Naina (March 19, 2021). "Yellow Messenger: Artificial Intelligence-based app to discover, shop for products". Firstpost.
  9. ^ Arakali, Harichandan (February 14, 2022). "Rashid Khan: Building for the connected world". Forbes India.
  10. ^ "Yellow Messenger to build Covid-19 assistance chatbots". The Economic Times. April 28, 2021.
  11. ^ Sangani, Priyanka (June 21, 2021). "Yellow Messenger rebrands to yellow.ai; launches voice bots". The Economic Times.
  12. ^ Dey, Victor (August 18, 2022). "Can conversational AI skip NLP training? Yellow AI has a plan". VentureBeat. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  13. ^ "Yellow AI launches dynamic automation platform powered by generative AI for enterprises". VentureBeat. April 25, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  14. ^ Dey, Victor (May 18, 2023). "Yellow AI launches YellowG, a generative AI platform for automation workflows". VentureBeat. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  15. ^ "Microsoft, Yellow Messenger team up to transform voice automation solutions". Hindustan Times. January 19, 2021.
  16. ^ "Tech Mahindra partners with Yellow.ai to bolster enterprise customer experiences with conversational AI". The Economic Times. February 7, 2022.
  17. ^ Sil, Debarghya (July 2, 2020). "Unicommerce Partners With Yellow Messenger To Streamline Direct-to-Consumer Selling Operations for Brands". Entrepreneur.
  18. ^ "Edelweiss General Insurance launches AI Voice Bot for motor claim registrations". Business Line. The Hindu. February 3, 2022.
  19. ^ Rekhi, Dia (October 19, 2021). "Yellow.ai sees massive surge in clients through Covid-19 period". The Economic Times.
  20. ^ Bhalla, Kritti (May 18, 2020). "Accenture Acquires Byte Prophecy To Offer Enterprise Scale AI Solutions". Inc42 Media. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  21. ^ "Tech Mahindra partners with Yellow.ai to bolster enterprise customer experiences with conversational AI". The Economic Times. February 7, 2022. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  22. ^ "Sony has a new voice assistant in India: How it works and all other details". The Times of India. November 23, 2022. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  23. ^ Rekhi, Dia (October 19, 2021). "Yellow.ai sees massive surge in clients through Covid-19 period". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  24. ^ Andersen, Ted (September 6, 2021). "This AI company's chatbot speaks 120 languages and is still learning more". Bizjournals.
  25. ^ "Yellow Messenger raises Series A Funding of $4 mln from Lightspeed, others". Livemint. June 12, 2019.
  26. ^ Rekhi, Dia (October 19, 2021). "Yellow.ai sees massive surge in clients through Covid-19 period". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  27. ^ "Yellow Messenger raises Series A Funding of $4 mln from Lightspeed, others". Livemint. June 12, 2019.
  28. ^ Matney, Lucas (April 16, 2020). "Conversational AI startup Yellow Messenger raises $20M Series B from Lightspeed". Techcrunch.
  29. ^ "yellow.ai raises $78.15 million in Series C round". The Economic Times. August 4, 2021.
  30. ^ Abrar, Peerzada (August 4, 2021). "Conversational AI firm yellow.ai raises $78.15 mn in Series C round". Business Standard.
  31. ^ "Yellow.ai Recognized for 2021 Technology Innovation Leadership" (PDF). Frost & Sullivan. October 2021.
  32. ^ "Awards Winners 2022". Entrepreneur India. February 25, 2022.
  33. ^ "MarTech Leadership Awards – 2022".
  34. ^ "FuTech Awards 2022" (PDF). Indian Express. 2022.
  35. ^ "2022 CCW Excellence Awards winners". CCW.
  36. ^ "It was very fortunate to be a success just out of college: Rashid Khan—Forbes India 30 Under 30". Forbes India. February 14, 2022.
  37. ^ "Forbes Asia 30 Under 30". Forbes. 2022.
  38. ^ Bhalla, Kritti (June 29, 2022). "Zepto, Dunzo among the next 122 unicorns from India — here's the complete Hurun list". Business Insider.
  39. ^ jirehl (October 24, 2023). "The Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2023 | The Software Report". Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  40. ^ "2023 Technology Fast 500 Award Winners". Deloitte United States. Retrieved March 3, 2024.