Reliance Industries Ltd in April announced that its subsidiary Reliance Jio has acquired Mumbai-based Haptik—one of the world’s largest conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms—for about Rs 700 crore. The transaction size, including investment for growth and expansion, will see Rs 230 crore as the consideration for the initial business transfer for the acquisition, the company said in a statement.

“This strategic investment underlines our commitment to further boost the digital ecosystem and provide Indian users conversational AI-enabled devices with multi-lingual capabilities,” said Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio. As reported by IANS last week, with this acquisition, Jio with its widespread reach will be in a formidable position to challenge Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant—both growing fast in the Indian market via smart home speakers and other “connected” Internet of Things (IoT) devices.