Haptik was co-founded by Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev in the year 2013. It is a mobile-first app platform that enables users to get daily tasks done by chatting with the assistants. Aakrit has an engineering degree from the University of Illinois and having an experience with Flurry in the US. The product was launched initially in the year 2013 and was named as ‘Batman’ as they did not figure out a better name for it. Later, they found a new name for it- Haptik inspired by the word ‘haptic,’ meaning non-verbal feedback.

As days passed and all the efforts and hard work were put into the application, it was officially launched in the year 2014. The app has been downloaded by over 1 million users ever since. The app has also been featured multiple times in the Google Play and iOS App Store among the best apps in India.

Soon after the launch, the app grew exponentially to a team of 19 people with 80 chat experts on board ready to answer user queries. Haptik soon started to be realized as the gateway to various services on the smartphone. It simplifies multiple complex applications into a single and easy to use interface. The most popular requests that Haptic serves are- online shopping, food delivery, travel bookings, restaurant reservations, mobile plan recharges, etc.

As Haptik climbed the ladder towards success, the company onboard NLP expert Dan Roth with the vision to improve the technology layer under its team of 150 chat experts. In 2016, the Haptik team also partnered with Samsung Mobiles to offer pre-build messaging concierge service to their users.

With the latest funding plans, the founders now looking towards new mass hiring. The team is now looking forward to leverage Times Internet’s reach by offering service to a wider audience. The team has also become a core team of 45 with over 300 assistants.

And the Growth Continues

Haptic has experienced a multifold growth in the past one year. The team has been processing over half a million requests every month of which over 25% are treated via artificial intelligence. The efficient team works with fulfillment partners such as Cleartrip, Flipkart, Urbanclap, Via.com, Dineout, etc.

The User Activity

According to Aakrit, the highest activity they experience is on Sundays and weekday evenings. Toward improving the user experience, Aakrit states that they lays emphasis on user feedbacks to figure out what the next features could be in the pipeline.

Sector’s Overview

Chat based commerce and mobile concierge have seen a lot of interest globally along with the Indian market. Many eCommerce businesses now are offering their services through simple chat conversations.

Facebook’s virtual assistant for Messenger ‘M’ is an exciting player in this domain despite being in its virtual space. The application relies both on AI and manual operations, ‘M’ helps users with tasks they aim to do. This application is a part of Facebook’s vision towards making the messenger a sticker platform driving users to shop and make purchases through it.

The Bottom Line

Haptik also announced that the firm had raised an undisclosed Series B round and forged an alliance with Times Internet. The team plans to use the funds for product development, business operations and in artificial intelligence capabilities.