American cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase has announced that it would acquire AI-powered customer support start-up Agara to add the company’s deep expertise in machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP). This Coinbase said it would add to the company’s engineering team to build its tech hub in India.

Coinbase plans to leverage Agara’s Deep Learning and Conversational AI technology to automate and enhance its customer experience (CX) tools. The company has also increased its support staff headcount by 5x in the past few months and also announced that it will deliver 24/7 phone support and live messaging by end of the year.

“Through this acquisition, we’ll be able to provide our customers with new personalised, intelligent, and real-time support options. In addition to Agara’s technology, the Agara team brings expertise in ML and NLP to Coinbase and will augment our existing product, engineering, and data teams,” Manish Gupta, EVP, Engineering, Coinbase said in a company blog.

The firms did not disclose the size of the acquisition deal.

Earlier this year, Coinbase announced its strategy to build out a tech hub in India and had noted that it will be exploring start-up acquisitions and acquihires to support its growth plans.

“With this new association, we will continue developing and delivering the high-quality support experiences to the rapidly increasing base of Coinbase customers around the globe. Coinbase has already invested heavily in support agents and is launching several new support initiatives to better serve customers. This, combined with Agara’s Deep Learning-powered product line up, will create an industry-leading customer experience stack,” Abhimanyu and Arjun Maheswaran, co-founders of Agara, said in a joint statement.

Some of the existing investors in Agara include Japan-based VC firm UTEC, Blume Ventures, RTP Global, Kleiner Perkins. This acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close later this year.

Published on November 2, 2021