Acquisition · Enterprise Software & IT

Exotel acqui-hires Dubverse to strengthen AI-led CX offerings

By Startup Enthusiast · 8 April 2026

Date: 8 April 2026
Company: Exotel
What it does: AI-powered customer engagement platform
Kind: Acquisition
Based in: Bengaluru
Founded: 2011
Sector: Enterprise Software & IT

What they do

Exotel is an AI-powered customer engagement platform that provides voice and chat agents to enterprises for customer interactions

What happened

Exotel has acqui-hired the core team of Dubverse, including cofounders Anuja Dhawan and Varshul Gupta, to strengthen its AI capabilities in enterprise…

Why it matters

Exotel turned profitable in FY25 with a net profit of ₹28.5 Cr, up from a loss of ₹50.6 Cr in FY24, and its operating revenue rose 75% to ₹458 Cr in FY25

The details

Exotel has acqui-hired the core team of Dubverse, including cofounders Anuja Dhawan and Varshul Gupta, to strengthen its AI capabilities in enterprise customer experience.
The deal will integrate Dubverse’s expertise in voice AI and conversational technologies into Exotel’s platform.
Exotel did not disclose the financial details of the acqui-hire.
Exotel’s CEO Shivakumar Ganesan highlighted that Dubverse’s team built voice and language AI models from scratch, which is a significant asset for Exotel.
Dubverse was a voice AI startup that offered multilingual voice generation tools for enterprises and had over 3 Mn users across 70+ languages.

The bigger picture

Exotel is expanding its focus on AI-led customer engagement tools as part of its broader enterprise communication offerings.
The acqui-hire will help Exotel strengthen its voice AI stack and conversational intelligence capabilities.
Exotel has raised over $87 million to date from investors like Steadview Capital, 360 ONE Asset, Blume Ventures, A91 Partners, Binny Bansal, Deep Kalra, and others.
Exotel’s operating revenue increased by 75% to ₹458 Cr in FY25 from ₹262.2 Cr in FY24, and it posted a net profit of ₹28.5 Cr in FY25.

About the business

Exotel is an AI-powered customer engagement platform that provides voice and chat agents to enterprises for customer interactions.
It offers tools to track call volume, duration, and other metrics to provide insights into call centre performance.
Exotel focuses on expanding its offerings under the AI and automation capability layer.
The company is based in Bengaluru and has been in operation since 2011.
Exotel has raised over $87 million to date from various investors.

The deal

Type: acquisition

Investors

Steadview Capital (investor) — A venture capital firm based in India.
360 ONE Asset (investor) — An investment firm focused on early-stage startups.
Blume Ventures (investor) — A venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups.
A91 Partners (investor) — A venture capital firm focused on technology startups.
Binny Bansal (investor) — Co-founder of Flipkart and an angel investor.
Deep Kalra (investor) — Co-founder of GoJek and an angel investor.

Founders

Anuja Dhawan, co-founder of Dubverse
Varshul Gupta, co-founder of Dubverse

More on Exotel

Everything on Exotel →

Same day

All startup news on 8 April 2026 →