IOI
Coinbase, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is striving to enhance its customer service while growing in India by acquiring a new firm.
Agara, an artificial intelligence-enabled support platform with operations in India and the United States, was acquired by Coinbase on Tuesday.
Coinbase’s customer support skills will be expanded and automated as a result of the purchase, which will provide additional machine learning and natural language processing technologies to the company’s technical staff. The agreement also affirms the company’s plan to develop its Indian IT base.
According to reports, the acquisition of Agara would cost Coinbase between $40 million and $50 million, according to unnamed people familiar with the situation. The acquisition is expected to finalize later this year, according to reports.
Agara was founded in 2017 with the goal of improving user experience using machine learning and natural language processing. Agara, which employs roughly 40 people, is said to have landed several big clients, including Salesforce, a cloud-based software business, and Shopify, a significant e-commerce platform.
Agara’s IT staff will join Coinbase as part of the transaction, according to Pankaj Gupta, head of operations at Coinbase in India. Gupta, an Agara co-founder, believes the acquisition will benefit both Agara and Coinbase. “It’s incredible to see my worlds converge here with Agara,” he said, referring to the firm he co-founded in early 2017 before leaving to join Google.
Abhimanyu, co-founder and CEO of Agara, highlighted that the firm has also been able to integrate its tech stack into phone-based client interactions. “Phone calls are one of the most sophisticated things we do.” We’ve been attempting to automate as much as possible, if not all, of the phone-based service,” he added.
Coinbase did not immediately react to a request for comment from a website.
Coinbase’s newest attempt to enhance its user experience comes as the business continues to struggle with providing adequate customer support. Coinbase consumers allegedly lambasted the company’s new phone support line in mid-October, alleging it was a “joke.” In August, the exchange was chastised for poor customer support after consumers complained about stolen accounts and lost funds.
