Tiger Global-backed conversational AI (artificial intelligence) startup Gupshup is ramping up its presence in emerging markets such as Latin America, Southeast Asia, West Asia, and Africa. “With high smartphone penetration and uptake for messaging apps, mobile-first economies are at the heart of driving adoption for conversational AI,” Beerud Sheth, CEO and co-founder, Gupshup, told FE.
While India continues to be a key market for the AI startup, regions like LatAm, West Asia and Asia Pacific have become significant growth drivers over the past three years. To support the expansion, the company has also increased its workforce by 20% in FY24, including doubling the team size in Brazil and boosting hiring in China, the GCC region, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Turkey. The firm currently has a total of 1,400 employees.
“In addition to large enterprises, even small businesses now see conversations as a necessity,” Sheth said. Gupshup offers innovative conversational AI solutions to businesses of all sizes across various sectors. Its platform currently supports over 10 billion messages per month across more than 60 countries, including India, Brazil, the UAE, Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, and the US.
Sheth added that companies are moving beyond the initial excitement around AI and are focusing on how it can give them a competitive edge by improving customer experiences, increasing customer loyalty, and driving revenue. “We are seeing particularly strong interest in sectors like retail and BFSI,” he added.
To meet the growing demand, the firm has specifically made senior-level hires in marketing, go-to-market (GTM), engineering, and solutions. In FY25, it plans to continue strengthening its engineering and GTM teams, with a focus on product development and customer support, both in India and other regions. This year, the startup also saw a 15% rise in women taking on senior leadership roles, with women making up 22% of its new hires and 33% of interns.
The startup has been profitable for over a decade and is growing at over 40% year-on-year. Gupshup’s India revenue from operations increased by 43% to Rs 1,619 crore during FY23 from Rs 1,132 crore in FY22. The startup claims that the traction from international markets has also been phenomenal and its revenues in some markets such as LatAm and West Asia have more than doubled.
The firm also continues to focus on acquisitions to drive growth. In the last three years, Gupshup has made five acquisitions, including Dotgo, Knowlarity, Active.ai, AskSid, and OneDirect. “The acquisitions align with our vision to offer a comprehensive conversational engagement platform that covers the end-to-end customer journey,” added Sheth.
The co-founder also said that these acquisitions filled gaps in its product vision, brought in new customers, and expanded its reach, thereby doubling revenues.
Further, the AI unicorn is also bullish about Apple’s recent adoption of RCS (rich communication services) business messaging and works with all the telcos to distribute RCS in India. RCS’ global customer base has exceeded 1 billion users. “This is expected to further accelerate growth, particularly in markets with a high number of iPhone users, such as the US, Canada, the UK, and Japan,” Sheth said.
