Reliance Jio is in the process of acquiring Haptik, a chatbot assistant company, for Rs 200 crore to build an Alexa-like platform, reports Inc42. Haptik co-founders Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev have signed a Business Transfer Agreement, the report added. Note that this is source based, and is as yet unconfirmed. Haptik reported revenues of Rs 4.58 crore and net losses of Rs 22.54 crore for FY18, the report stated. If Jio does indeed buy Haptik, we could see multiple use cases across its digital businesses. Yesterday, we reported that Jio was testing a new Triple Play plan – a service that bundles video, voice and data – on its JioGigaFiber FTTH connections, and will offer 100GB of high-speed data (capped at 100 Mbps), unlimited voice calling, Jio Home TV subscription and Jio native apps. Last month, Reliance Jio launched its own group calling app called ‘Group Talk’. In January, the CCI approved Reliance Industries’ acquisitions of majority stakes in DEN Networks and Hathway Cable. In December, RIL merged its two music streaming services — JioMusic and Saavn into one, months after buying Saavn for $104 million. Haptik’s previous funding Note that Haptik has pivoted to being a chatbot assistant app from being an IM concierge like app in 2016. Then, it had raised funding from Times Internet and entered into a strategic partnership with the company. Prior to this Haptik had raised $1 million from Kalaari Capital in September 2014 for developing new features and marketing. In October 2015,…
