Ankur Singla, was working with a corporate law firm in London when he quit in 2009 to startup. When he came back to India he had a problem with his phone company overcharging him for the internet services, and he realized how difficult consumer complaint readdress in India really is. And he started up Akosha in 2010.
What started as a complaint platform for companies soon changed to a personal assistant app when the team realized that the nature of queries from customers started to vary. “People were seeking all kinds of help which were not just limited to complaints,” says Ankur, the CEO and Founder.
We live in a world complicated by information and choice, where every little task demands time and attention. Helpchat team wanted to add value to people’s life by providing them a helping hand to make every day easier. “HelpChat today is India’s biggest personal assistant app that is helping consumers in all their daily decision making process,” he says proudly.
Helpchat is helping consumers get more things done. It could be anything from recharging your phone to tech support, travel booking, holiday guidance, ordering food at your doorstep, providing shopping assistance, helping you find the best deals & coupons, web check-in and laundry.
It’s like one app for all apps which differentiate us from others. “Imagine if, in order to use the web, you had to download an app for each website you wanted to visit. That would have been a nightmare. Then came the web browser a universal app that let anyone open anything on the web. No need to download an app for a specific web site,” says the National Law University graduate.
Based on user behavior, Helpchat has personalized their suggestions and services for user just like a real life personal assistant does. The core team of co-founders has Vishal Pal Chaudhary is working as a CTO, Vishrut Chalsani, and Avinash Vankadaru.
Helpchat has integrated with brands like OLA, Cleartrip, ecommerce brands, and Food brands like Mast kalandar, Brekkie, Freshmenu etc & household services companies using an API approach.
“We have 57 brands integrated with Helpchat using API. We have covered all the services and information that a user requires in the daily life, right from personalized early morning news to booking a cab for office, from ordering launch based on the personal choice to planning things for the weekend,” says Avinash, who is heading products at Helpchat.
The company had recently acquired Mumbai based hyperlocal deals start up Niffler to expand their services in cities like Mumbai and Pune.
The app uses Artificial intelligence system to anticipate users’ need and suggest the best solution at the right time. “Our backend system is powered by AI + human to ensure the quality and speed in our operation. We have interactive bots integrated with our chat applications that automatically respond to users need,” says Chalsani, an IIT Bombay graduate who is working as a VP for their enterprise technology solutions- OneDirect.
They are more than 600 people in product, marketing, operations and engineering teams with offices in Delhi and Mumbai.
With more than 80,000 request on a daily basis the brand is steadily becoming the default behavior for today’s technology oriented Indian population.
“We are looking at increasing our daily request handling capability by 2 lakh to address even more user request every day. Also, we are looking to expand our service portfolio by adding couple of new services to our chat app,” says Vishal Pal. When they began, they received 350K downloads in the initial three months.
In May 2015 Helpchat secured 100 crore in series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital. As a message to future entrepreneurs, Ankur says, “Go for it. Give it at least 1-2 years before you decide to quit. It will change your life.”