Cloud telephony firm Exotel said it has acquired Cogno AI, an artificial intelligence-powered omnichannel cloud communication platform.

Cogno AI is a conversational AI platform with features such as an omnichannel chatbot, live chat, and co-browse. It offers businesses customer engagement solutions such as customer sentiment monitoring, smooth onboarding of new customers, zero contact resolution for existing customers, and different digital sales and support use cases.

With over 60 significant business customers, including the State Bank group, HDFC group, ICICI group, Kotak group, Aditya Birla group, and others, Cogno AI is presently the industry leader in banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI).

The acquisition will add conversational AI and co-browsing capabilities to its product suite and bring it one step closer towards being an AI-powered customer engagement platform.

The funding amount for the transaction, which is a part cash and part stock deal, was not disclosed.

Exotel announced a $35 million Series C investment round in September 2021, and the firm has raised $55 million in debt and equity funding in the last year. Exotel and contact center software supplier Ameyo recently announced their merger, and now with Cogno AI, the company is expanding 70 percent year over year and has an ARR of $50 million, with a target of $200 million in the next three years.

Exotel has been bolstering its capabilities by partnering with Ameyo and now Cogno AI to provide a suite of client interaction products that are all provided over the cloud. This unique solution in emerging regions enables businesses to engage with customers across channels, processes, and devices to improve omnichannel journeys.

"We started four years ago with chatbots as our primary offering, and then went on to add more customer engagement-related offerings to our suite. We were able to gather the necessary feedback and establish a product-market fit for the BFSI area by working directly with business clients”, says Aman Goel, co-founder and CEO, Cogno AI.

Commenting on the acquisition, Goel adds that, “we see great synergies between Exotel and Ameyo, and we believe that by working together, we can provide a lot more value to our clients”.

Cogno AI's team has joined the Exotel family to work on a shared aim of putting all customer engagement tools together in one place. Cogno AI's legal advice was Vertices Partners, and the deal was brokered by IndigoEdge, a Bangalore-based investment bank.

“In the customer engagement area, distributed workforces, digital channel usage, and conversational AI are all apparent trends. Exotel adds conversational AI capabilities to its contact center service with the purchase of Cogno AI. Exotel and Ameyo work together to provide the most well-known brands in emerging markets. Exotel will be able to provide its customers an AI-powered Customer Engagement Platform on the cloud as a result of this acquisition”, says Shivku, co-founder and CEO, Exotel.