Startup Street: Forget Siri, Akeira Can Give You Sound Financial Advice
Uniphore’s Aumina and Akeira are taking speech recognition to whole different level.
This week we take a look at how Aumina and Akeira, Uniphore’s speech recognition software products, are gaining traction in the Indian market. In America, a startup has figured out how to supply meat without hurting animals and, closer home, Margo Networks’ new technology has lured Zee Entertainment. Here’s what been buzzing on Startup Street.
Akeira And Aumina Are Taking Speech Recognition To The Next level
Forget Siri, Akeira can give you sound financial advise and then help you carry out your transactions. Who is she, you ask?
Akeira is a sophisticated speech recognition software developed by Uniphore. It is meant for large enterprises such as banks and insurance companies. The software works out of the company’s data base, advising clients on important financial investments and the products available in the market.
Uniphore is currently in the midst of striking a deal with an insurance company that will bring Akeira’s expertise to Indian users, said the firm’s chief executive officer and co-founder Umesh Sachdev in a conversation with BloombergQuint. While the deal is expected to conclude soon, Sachdev refused to disclose the name of the company that he is in talks with.
For a software like Akeira, which will operate only out of the insurance company’s database, to succeed the data bank needs to be equally sophisticated. And that is where Aumina comes in.
Already deployed in India across companies like State Bank of India, Axis Bank and ITC, Aumina analyses conversations and converts them into data on a real time basis. For example, if a client is in conversation with an employee at the insurance company’s call center, Aumina will analyse the conversation and give the employee his options.
Aumina tracks words, voice modulation and a number of other parameters to compute whether the call was a successful one or not. Moreover, it sends alerts even as the conversation is going on if it spots a sales opportunity.
Speech recognition is a $50-60 billion market in India, said Sachdev while adding that he believes the software sisters can capture a big chunk.
No Slaughter Was Involved In The Making Of This Nugget!
San Fransisco based Memphis Meats announced a breakthrough in 'clean poultry', creating poultry meat through cell replication.
"It is thrilling to introduce the first chicken and duck that didn’t require raising animals," said co-founder and managing director Uma Valeti.
But how does this process work?
The startup starts with meat cells that have the ability to self renew, which are then fed with rich nutrients, vitamins, minerals and plant. The growth process takes about two-three weeks, Valeti explained in a mail to BloombergQuint. This way, the company creates "real meat" without adding to the problems for the environment, animal welfare and human health, he added.
As for it's target audience, Valeti said, "Some folks who are otherwise vegetarian might eat it, but we are firmly focused on people who already love meat." The startup will commercially launch its products in the next five years and is hoping to grab a "large portion" of the meat market.
Zee Entertainment Acquires 80% Stake In Startup
Zee Entertainment will acquire 80 percent stake in Mumbai based startup - Margo Networks for Rs 75 crore.
Founded in August 2016, Margo has developed a technology which has the potential to boost digital consumption of content.
The Zee group acquired a stake in the company "considering the strong synergies of the technology developed by Margo with the current business of the company (Zee)," it said in an exchange filing.
The deal is expected to be concluded within 30 days.