Banking on the speech interface After roping in leading clients in India, speech-based mobile solutions provider

Uniphore Software Systems plans to go global

In 2006, Umesh Sachdev and Ravi Saraogi, batchmates at Jaypee Institute of Information

Technology, Noida, started experimenting with a mobile theft security product, before starting a

company called Singularis Technologies. After the company won a few global competitions and

a few large contracts, the Delhi-based duo decided to delve deep into this field, giving up offers

from software services giants such as Infosys and Adobe.

In 2008, they started speech-based solutions firm Uniphore Software Systems.

Today, with a few premium clients in its kitty, Uniphore provides integration of speech

recognition and voice biometrics with smart mobile technology, to deliver solutions on the

cloud. The company has developed two cloud-based platforms - VoiceNet, which is designed for

feature phones and provides human-like conversations using interactive voice response,

multilingual speech recognition and voice biometrics; and text-to-speech, giving birth to a voice

communications platform.

The platform offers customisable profiles, automated transactions, information on demand,

interactive conversations, voice recordings and mCAS, a smart mobility application development

platform.

Early days

Even as Singularis had seen initial success and roped in a few big clients such as Mahanagar

Telephone Nigam and Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Sachdev and Saraogi began to realise it would

take more than this for the company to scale up.

"We got in touch with Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M)'s Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a

renowned academician who plays a role in government policymaking and is on the board of

some companies," recalls Sachdev, chief executive of Uniphore. "He introduced us to the

institute's incubation centre, Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI)."

After a few visits to IIT-M and interactions with entrepreneurs there, Sachdev and Saraogi

decided to shift to Chennai.

However, RTBI was only focused on facilitating rural-inclusive technology and business

innovation. "So, we came up with the idea that vernacular voice would be the easiest medium

to reach the rural market. Even an illiterate person with a low-cost phone could dial a number,

speak to a computer and find information or make a transaction - that's how the roots of

Uniphore were laid," says Sachdev.

Jhunjhunwala says, "Uniphore is an innovative young company, providing fascinating mobile-

based solutions, developed in partnership with IIT-M. Uniphore will continue making a

significant difference in speech and mobility space."

Journey so far

From a manually operated call centre for villagers in Tamil Nadu to resolving issues using the

local language, Uniphore gradually evolved into technology-led voice-based solutions provider.

In 2008, Uniphore secured its first client, Thomson Reuters.

Today, Uniphore has an impressive list of clients, including State Bank of India, Axis Bank,

Airbus, ITC and Cholamandalam. Sources say the company's annual revenue is about Rs 10

crore; through the past three years, it has risen about three times. Sachdev says Uniphore aims

to record $20 million (about Rs 124 crore) in annual revenue by 2017-18, primarily backed by

expansion abroad.

"We expect around 20 per cent of our revenue for this financial year to come from foreign

operations," he says. "For the next few months, we are focused only on Southeast Asia and

West Asia, before we expand into other regions."

Funding

Initially, Uniphore received seed funding of $100,000 from investors, including RTBI and

National Research Development Corporation. With the company turning profitable since the

second year of operations, Sachdev and Saraogi didn't see the need to raise more funds.

However, as the company considered expanding globally, it raised an undisclosed sum from a

consortium of investors, including Indian Angel Network, YourNest Angel Fund and Ray Stata

(co-founder of Analog Devices), in March this year. These funds will primarily be used to enter

Southeast Asia and West Asia. Uniphore will also seek to strengthen its speech-based products

and create more context-based and personalised applications.

Nagaraja Prakasam, mentor & investor, Indian Angel Network, says, "Continuing on our theme

on backing inclusive innovations, we are optimistic of the success of Uniphore, which has

already completed six successful years. In a country of 1.2 billion people, where only 250

million speak English, vernacular speech recognition can enable financial inclusion and

information dissemination to farmers. Uniphore is also a great example of solving the problems

of a billion people and this opens opportunities for another four billion in emerging nations. We

feel the passion Umesh and Ravi bring along, as well as their domain knowledge and expertise,

makes all this possible."

Siri for India

Uniphore's technology can be used to develop a business-to-consumer (B2C) product such as

intelligent personal assistant Siri, available on iOS devices. This virtual assistant lets users

operate smartphones by voice commands. While many have tried to develop such expertise for

other operating systems, most have failed due to the diversity in the accents of consumers in

various markets.

Sachdev, however, says as of now, Uniphore is only looking at the enterprise business; it has

no plans to develop an application for consumers.

"The reason why we started this company was we believed after touch, speech would be the

next interface; that is becoming a reality now. We will be more than happy if a few years from

now, someone wants to develop a product such as Siri on our platform. But as a company, we

are currently focused on the B2B (business-to-business) segment, not B2C," he adds.

FACT BOX

Name: Uniphore Software Systems

Area of business: Speech-based mobile solutions

Started operations: 2008

Gross revenue: Rs 10 crore every year

Break-even: Turned profitable in 2010

Funding: Seed funding of $100,000 from IIT-M's incubator Rural Technology and Business

Incubator, National Research Development Corporation and social enterprise incubator Villgro.

Undisclosed amount from a consortium of investors including Indian Angel Network, YourNest

Angel Fund, and Ray Stata, co-founder of Analog Devices

Top clients: State Bank of India, Axis Bank, American Express, Airbus, ITC

EXPERT TAKE

Voice-based solutions such as voice SMS, voice recording and interactive voice recognition,

which Uniphore specialises in, will be a great tool in India, as literacy isn't a barrier in using

these. These can be rolled out across verticals such as education (English Seekho, educating

farmers on best practices and rural help lines), health care (remote interactive diagnosis from

cities and counselling services) and automotive (control over navigation, infotainment system

and phones). Speech-based services have a high potential for usage and growth, as these can

be offered in local languages, ensuring relevance and context.

These voice-based applications are likely to expand into lower income segments. For operators,

these services are more beneficial compared to text-based ones, as voice generates higher

revenue. Voice-based solutions will not only render more revenue for operators in the

commoditised saturated voice market but also lead to innovative applications in dual mode

(voice+video, voice+SMS and voice+data).

Virtual assistants launched by a few leading smartphone brands are just the beginning of

innovation in this field. Improvement in voice recognition and other related technologies will

drive the success of these speech-based services. The future lies in voice, as consumers will

move away from typing to more convenient options.

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