Reliance Jio is allegedly purchasing Haptik—one of the biggest conversational AI platforms in the world—for more than Rs 200 Crore, the media claimed. A media report claimed that the payment is likely to be concluded this week. Mentioning a firm paper, the report stated that “Reliance Jio and Swapan Rajdev & Aakrit Vaish (Haptik founders) have inked a Business Transfer Deal”.
When made contact, Haptik refused to offer an official answer on the report. A spokesperson of Reliance Jio claimed that the firm does not answer on market rumors. However, industry sources claimed that the agreement is expected to be in an early phase.
If the news turns out to be real, Jio, with its broad reach, will be in a redoubtable position to challenge Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa—both developing fast in the market through “connected” IoT (Internet of Things) devices and smart home speakers. Reliance Jio spearheaded the subscription fight in January last year with an inclusion of 93.24 Lakh users all over the nation, the highest amongst the entire telecom service supplier.
Latest data issued by the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) displayed that the user base of Jio was almost 29 Crore. Having increased 10 times in income in only a single year, Haptik’s clients and partners comprise HDFC Life, Edelweiss Tokio, Coca-Cola, Amazon Pay, Samsung, ICICI Bank, Goibibo, Tata Docomo, and ClubMahindra amongst others.
On a related note, Haptik earlier declared its association with Amazon Pay to drive payments for its 5 Million subscriber base. Employing Haptik, users can pay bills, book flights, and buy local offers. All these payments can now be made with the help of Amazon Pay. This makes Haptik the first application in the nation to enable 3 major sectors using Amazon Pay—Recharge, Flight Booking, and Bill Payments.
