Too many apps to juggle? This concierge aims to be the one to rule them all

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We are in a transition phase. An app for this, an app for that, an app for every little thing – it gets tiring. Now is the dawn of virtual assistants – one nifty app that can single-handedly hail cabs, book movie tickets, make travel plans, buy flowers, and order food to your doorstep.

“Conversational commerce” has been catching on in India with the launch of startups like Lookup. Now we’re seeing the emergence of startups like Niki, JoeHukum, and SuperText which use a chat interface for a wide range of on-demand services by aggregating many apps into one.

Smart investors have sniffed the trend. The latest to get their attention is Wishup, which announced seed funding today from TracxnLabs, 500 Startups, Mato Peric, and a host of angel investors.

“The popularity of conversational commerce is at a peak due to the hectic schedules of the working population. By aggregating essential services into one platform, Wishup aims to be a one-stop shop solution to cater to customers’ day-to-day requirements,” says Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn.

See: India’s baby steps to WeChat-style commerce

Picking the best options for users

Photo credit: Tim & Selena Middleton

Wishup co-founder Neelesh Rangwani was head of social media marketing for Rocket Internet company ShopWings in Berlin before this. “During my stint in Germany, I came across a food delivery service on a simple chat. That is when this idea of aggregating services on chat clicked to me. We started with my personal WhatsApp number and scaled up to 1,000 requests per day within a month. That’s when we decided to come up with a more personalized platform on mobile phones,” he says.

Wishup operators do the searching, filtering, and choosing of standardized services from laundry to grocery for users. “We have seen great traction from working millennials. Wishup helps this audience by providing them with an easy to use solution which offers the best deals, rather than confusing them with multiple options,” says Vivek Gupta, the other Wishup co-founder, who was a senior associate with the Boston Consulting Group until June last year.

Wishup even lets its users submit to-do lists and also plans to use artificial intelligence in categories like cab bookings and mobile top-ups. “At Wishup, AI will be used at both the ends – a Wishbot which is at the customer end and an Opsbot which is at the operations end. Wishbot is an autonomous chat bot that understands query intent and acts upon it. Opsbot, on the other hand, engages the users on behalf of operators when they are busy. It also helps in logging requests and categorizing them automatically. These features are in development stage and will be rolled out soon,” says Prahadeesh Giridharan, co-founder in charge of tech at Wishup. He is an IIT Madras grad who had a stint at Microsoft earlier.

“Wishup aims to build on technology to give spot-on recommendations and execute any transaction,” says Mato Peric, former partner and global managing director at Rocket Internet. The Delhi-based startup has early adopters from Facebook Messenger. Now it has launched an Android app in beta and expanded operations to Bangalore.

Wishup will face the same challenges that all on-demand services and products face in India – the quality of suppliers and the hassles in delivery. But as an aggregator, it can aim to find the best options for its users.