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Business News/ Companies / Start-ups/  Retail start-up Appie raises $1 million, Ratan Tata invests in chat-bot firm
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Retail start-up Appie raises $1 million, Ratan Tata invests in chat-bot firm

Appie plan to acquire 10,000 retailers across 3 cities in the first year; chat-bot maker Niki.ai claims a user base of 40,000

Appie plans to have close to half a million users in the first year.Premium
Appie plans to have close to half a million users in the first year.

Bengaluru: Appie Mobiquity Pvt Ltd, a start-up that makes a product that helps its users find products available in their local stores, said it raised $1 million in a bridge round from three undisclosed investors to launch its product and scale its service.

“We plan to acquire 10,000 retailers across 3 cities in the first year and close to half a million users. As an O2O platform, we wish to combine the benefits of online discovery and offline shopping and look forward to expanding our retailer base to other cities to serve this end," said Kartik Sanghavi, founder, Appie Mobiquity, in a statement.

The start-up makes money by charging a commission on each transaction.


Ratan Tata invests undisclosed amount in chat-bot start-up Niki.ai

Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons Ltd, has invested an undisclosed amount in Niki.ai, run by Techbins Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a start-up that offers a chat-bot for users to perform transactions. Niki.ai’s existing investor, Unilazer Ventures, which invested an undisclosed amount in a seed round last October, also participated in this round.

Started in 2015 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Sachin Jaiswal, Keshav Prawasi, Nitin Babel, and Shishir Modi, Niki.ai employs about 21 people and helps users make bill payments, book cabs, recharge their phones, order food and home services, and view live cricket scores.

The company claims a user base of 40,000 and plans to release software development kits using which brands can integrate chat-bots within their own applications to increase its reach.

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Published: 19 May 2016, 10:51 PM IST
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