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Gupshup
AcquiredFounded 2004 · 945 employees · 12 known investors
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Gupshup provides an AI-powered conversational messaging platform that lets businesses automate, personalize, and scale customer conversations with AI agents across multiple channels. It serves enterprises worldwide looking to manage business-to-customer communication.
Also known as Active.ai · Active.Ai · ActiveAI
Founders & leadership
Gupshup was founded in 2004 by Beerud Sheth.
Investors · 12
How we know: CRV (Charles River Ventures)'s portfolio page · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Kalaari Capital's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us
How we know: a partner's Signal profile · Not right? Tell us
How we know: SquareOne Capital's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Tenaya Capital's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Think Investments's portfolio page · funding news · Not right? Tell us
How we know: funding news · Not right? Tell us
How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us
How we know: funding news · gupshup.io · Not right? Tell us
How we know: funding news · press coverage · Not right? Tell us
Also in the syndicate · 1
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$60M disclosed across 1 round · 2025
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Active.Ai is a conversational artificial intelligence company headquartered in Singapore that serves banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) institutions. Its Conversational Banking as a Service (CBaaS) platform enables banks, credit unions and fintech companies to engage consumers through voice, video and messaging channels, combining natural language processing with connectivity into enterprise banking systems.
The company reported customers in 43 countries and, in aggregate, more than 300 million user interactions handled via voice, video and messaging, over 30 million service requests managed and more than 50 million enquiries fulfilled, at a stated 95 percent accuracy. In April 2022 Active.Ai was acquired by conversational messaging company Gupshup, which said the acquisition added vertical depth in BFSI to its product stack.
Founding story
Active.Ai was founded in 2016 by Ravi Shankar, Shankar Narayanan and Parikshit Paspulati. Ravi Shankar served as co-founder and CEO [2][0].
Business model
Active.Ai sells a Conversational Banking as a Service (CBaaS) platform to banking, financial services and insurance institutions, which use it to automate and handle consumer interactions such as enquiries and service requests across voice, video and messaging channels [0].
Traction
The company reported enabling over 300 million user interactions via voice, video and messaging, managing more than 30 million service requests and fulfilling more than 50 million enquiries in aggregate, with 95 percent accuracy, and serving BFSI customers in 43 countries who engage millions of consumers each month [0].
Latest developments
On 5 April 2022 Gupshup announced the acquisition of Active.Ai. Gupshup's CEO said the deal was mostly cash and that the founders and employees would continue, while other institutional investors exited. At the same time Gupshup said it was in talks for a pre-IPO round of $100-200 million ahead of planned US listing [0][2].
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Positioned as a vertically specialised conversational AI provider for the BFSI segment; Gupshup acquired the company to add BFSI vertical depth to its broader conversational messaging product stack [0][2].
Combines natural language processing with deep connectivity into financial enterprise systems, delivered as a Conversational Banking as a Service platform focused specifically on banking and fintech use cases rather than general-purpose messaging [0].
Technology
The platform applies advanced natural language processing combined with deep enterprise connectivity to power conversational engagement across voice, video and messaging. The company reported 95 percent accuracy across the interactions it has handled [0].
Go-to-market
Direct enterprise sales to financial institutions, supported by partnerships with technology and consulting firms including AWS, Microsoft, Infosys (Finacle), TCS, Finastra, EY, PwC and Accenture. Gupshup noted a high customer overlap, with many of its banking customers already using Active.Ai to develop chatbots [0][2].
Banks, credit unions, fintech companies and other BFSI institutions. Named customers include Royal Credit Union and CommFirst Federal Credit Union in the United States; Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Capital, IndusInd Bank and HDFC Securities in India; NTUC Income, NIUM and Tonik Bank in South East Asia; and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, Qatar Islamic Bank and Burgan Bank in the Middle East [0].
Geography
Headquartered in Singapore, with BFSI customers across 43 countries spanning the United States, India, South East Asia and the Middle East [0][2].
History
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Singapore, Active.Ai built a Conversational Banking as a Service platform for banks and fintech firms and raised venture funding from investors including Kalaari Capital, Chiratae Ventures, Vertex Ventures, CreditEase Holdings, Dream Incubator, InnoCells and Kstart. On 5 April 2022 Gupshup, operated by Webaroo Inc., announced its acquisition of the company. Gupshup's CEO Beerud Sheth described the transaction as a "mid-sized" acquisition involving mostly cash, with Active.Ai's founders and employees continuing while other institutional investors exited. The deal was Gupshup's second acquisition of 2022, following cloud telephony company Knowlarity Communications in February 2022 and RCS startup Dotgo in September 2021 [0][2].
Compiled by commissioned research from 3 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Related companies · 10
Companies working in the same space as Gupshup.
Timeline · 1
launches, deals, and filingsGupshup, operated by Webaroo Inc., announced the acquisition of conversational AI platform Active.Ai to strengthen its customer experience offering for BFSI customers. Gupshup CEO Beerud Sheth described it as a "mid-sized" acquisition involving mostly cash; Active.Ai's founders and employees were to continue, while other institutional investors exited. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 3
primary sources listed
- Gupshup acquires conversational AI platform Active.Ai - The Hindu BusinessLinethehindubusinessline.com · web
3 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Gupshup do?
- Singapore-based conversational AI platform for banks and fintechs, acquired by Gupshup in April 2022.
- Who founded Gupshup?
- Gupshup was founded by Beerud Sheth in 2004.
- Who are Gupshup's investors?
- Gupshup's investors include CRV (Charles River Ventures), InvestX, Kalaari Capital, Lead Edge Capital, SquareOne Capital, Tenaya Capital, Think Investments, EvolutionX Debt Capital and 3 more.
- How much funding has Gupshup raised?
- Gupshup has disclosed $60M raised across 1 round.