Gupshup Enters The AI Era
Gupshup is betting on AI for its next growth phase. Leveraging its massive enterprise footprint, the SaaS giant is deploying voice AI agents and model-agnostic integrations to reshape its tech stack to build an AI-first conversational platform. But can it outpace its nimble, AI-native rivals?
Gupshup's AI Deck: The SaaS platform’s AI stack spans self-serve voice agents for support and operations and Super Agent, an orchestration layer unifying messaging, campaigns, CRM and analytics via natural-language commands. The platform is model-agnostic, while Superclaw enables on-device deployment. These AI and advanced orchestration products now contribute roughly 25% of revenue, growing faster than the legacy messaging vertical.
The Enterprise Moat: Gupshup serves over 50,000 businesses across 130 countries, processing 120 Bn messages annually. The startup leverages these existing relationships and transaction volumes as a competitive edge that AI-native rivals lack. Combined with voice infrastructure and enterprise integrations, this deep integration also allows the platform to drive higher revenue per user as more and more clients adopt custom AI agents.
Gupshup’s IPO Test: The SaaS giant is also evaluating redomiciling to India and is eyeing a potential local listing in the next 12-24 months. Against this backdrop, Gupshup must prove that AI is driving higher revenue per customer, better margins and stronger retention – not just adding products. Investors will scrutinise whether its incumbency translates into a defensible, scalable AI moat.
The Many Pitfalls: Yet, Gupshup continues to douse fires on multiple fronts. Meta’s Business Agent and Jio’s RCS push (with Apple) threaten to commoditise infrastructure and encroach on its application layer. Gupshup bets that its model-agnostic orchestration will remain relevant as enterprises avoid lock-in. But this is not all. The SaaS platform is also facing valuation markdowns, a decline in India revenue and job cuts as it pivots to AI.
With a new CFO onboard and IPO plans, can Gupshup convert its enterprise user base into a durable AI moat before model owners encroach on its turf? Let’s find out…
From The Editor’s Desk
💰 Moneyview’s ₹328 Cr Anchor Round
- Ahead of the commencement of the bidding for its IPO later today, the fintech unicorn has raised ₹327.5 Cr from anchor investors. It allocated 9.63 Cr shares to the backers at an issue price of ₹34 per equity share, the upper end of its IPO’s price band.
- Seven domestic mutual funds via a total of fourteen schemes cornered 72% of the anchor round. The fundraise also saw participation from Motilal Oswal, 360 ONE, Goldman Sachs and ICICI Prudential.
- Moneyview’s ₹1,092 Cr IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth up to ₹750 Cr and an OFS of up to 10.05 Cr shares. It has set a price band of ₹32-34 for the issue, pegging the company at a valuation of around ₹5,985 Cr at the upper end of the spectrum.
🎓 BYJU'S-Aakash Settle Dispute
- The troubled edtech platform has reached a settlement with the coaching chain in the dispute involving the latter’s rights issue. The counsel for BYJU’S has informed the NCLT of the settlement.
- The trouble started last year, when Aakash began undertaking a ₹500 Cr rights issue. The proposed fundraise could have diluted BYJU’S stake in the chain from 26% to 5%. This prompted BYJU’S to move the NCLT, alleging oppression and mismanagement.
- All of this plays out against BYJU’S dramatic collapse. The startup is undergoing insolvency after years of debt-fuelled acquisitions, opaque accounting, delayed filings and mounting losses.
🔍 The FSSAI Crackdown Continues
- The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has initiated penal action against five major quick commerce and ecommerce platforms for food safety violations and regulatory non-compliances.
- The platforms under FSSAI’s radar include Amazon, Swiggy Instamart, BigBasket, Flipkart and Zepto. The regulator claims that the platforms engaged in misbranding and misleading claims linked to sale and display of certain food products.
- This comes close on the heels of FSSAI also issuing notices to 20 legacy and D2C brands over health and purity claims. The regulator has also proposed a new red hexagon warning for packaged foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat.
🛵 Zelio Eyes ₹168 Cr
- The EV maker’s board has approved a proposal to raise up to ₹168 Cr via a preferential issue of equity shares and convertible warrants to fund its growth initiatives.
- Under this, the BSE SME listed company will issue up to 9.73 Lakh equity shares at an issue price of ₹853 per share to four non-promoter institutional and private investors. It will also allot 9.96 Lakh convertible warrants at the same issue price to three promoters.
- Founded in 2021, Zelio makes low-speed electric scooters at its four manufacturing plants. It operates in over 25 states and has a network of more than 300 dealers. The EV maker reported a standalone profit of ₹28 Cr in FY26.
📈 Zype Turns Profitable In FY26
- The digital lending startup’s parent, Easy Platform Services, turned profitable in FY26 and reported a consolidated profit after tax of ₹5.3 Cr against a loss of ₹12.9 Cr in FY25. This came as its consolidated total income zoomed 66.6% YoY to ₹176.6 Cr.
- On the operational front, Easy Platform managed assets worth ₹621.2 Cr in the fiscal under review. Meanwhile, capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio improved to 33.3% in FY26 from 24.7% in FY25.
- Founded in 2019, Easy Platform operates digital lending platform Zype, which offers unsecured personal loans to salaried individuals. It also operates NBFC Respo, which offers unsecured personal loans and distributes insurance products.
Inc42 Markets
Inc42 Startup Spotlight
Can Coremantle Fix AI’s Indic Data Problem?
AI models often struggle with Indian speech because training data rarely captures the country’s languages, dialects and accents. Coremantle is tackling this gap with consented, Indic-native datasets designed to help AI understand how Indians actually speak and communicate.
Indic Data Infrastructure: Founded in 2024, Coremantle is building an AI data-intelligence layer, which focuses on building the raw material needed to train, evaluate and improve models. It works with speech data and regional-language content. The startup is also exploring partnerships with podcast creators and content producers to license material for AI training.
The startup claims that its sourcing is consent-first, traceable and designed to comply with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection framework.
Building AI-Ready Datasets: The startup’s platform filters, verifies and benchmarks data before delivery. It aims to provide datasets that reflect India’s linguistic complexity, including dialect variation, regional accents, native and Romanised scripts. This could support voice models, translation systems, search tools and sovereign AI projects.
The In-House Edge: The founders’ long experience in Indic language technology gives Coremantle domain expertise, but the startup must still build reliable supply, quality-control systems and commercial demand across a fragmented market. With the homegrown AI training dataset market projected to become a $1.3 Bn opportunity by 2030, can Coremantle make the local linguistic diversity an AI advantage rather than a data bottleneck?
Infographic Of The Day
Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh’s portfolio goes way beyond Mamaearth. From ecommerce and fintech to enterprise tech, healthtech and edtech, their portfolio spans 50+ companies across categories. Here is all about it…
