Go Moment’s product Ivy offers texting platform for hotel industry; Pulse Labs, offers UX testing solutions for developers that use voice ecosystems.
Google has announced that it has made the first round of investments in two innovative companies owned by Indian Americans that have built next-generation products to explore the possibilities of digital assistant ecosystem.
In a blog post by Sanjay Kapoor, vice president of corporate development at Google, and Nick Fox, vice president of product at Google, wrote that the company has made the first batch of investments in four start-up companies, out of which two — Go Moment and Pulse Labs — are owned by Indian Americans.
The two firms have been identified by Google for investments because they are working on projects that are synonymous with the company’s vision to make the life of users much easier than ever thought before.
According to Google, it has been providing tools for developers, starting from Android to Chrome to Action, to create products that enable a natural conversational experience to its users.
“To promote more of this creativity, we’re opening a new investment program for early-stage startups that share our passion for the digital assistant ecosystem, helping to push new ideas forward and advance the possibilities of what digital assistants can do,” says the blog post.
Go Moment, a technology startup based in Santa Monica, California, is founded by Indian American Raj Singh. Google was impressed with its product Ivy, which is a smart texting platform for hotels and the hospitality industry.
Ivy is a digital assistant platform that works as a personal assistant, communicating with hotel guests via text messaging — addressing some of the most frequently asked questions and services automatically, such as “What’s the wifi code? “I’d like more towels” etc.
The app is designed in such a way that it can also book restaurant reservations, spa appointments and other revenue enhancing services. Ivy is based on the IBM Watson’s artificial intelligence technology.
Pulse Labs, a Seattle-based technology startup, offers UX testing solutions for the developers who use the voice ecosystems such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Cortana.
The tool offered by Pulse Labs helps developers get UX feedback on voice applications that they are working on. Developers and designers of voice applications can use the platform to test what they’ve built with real people and quickly acquire in-depth insights, and use that feedback to create a more engaging user experience.
Pulse Labs was founded in December 2016 by Indian American Abhishek Suthan and Dylan Zwick.
The new Google investment program will offer capital to provide additional financial resources for the development, hiring and management of selected startups. In addition to this they will also get expert advice from Google staffs ranging from engineers, product managers, and design experts to fine tune their platform.
The Google selected startups will be provided access to upcoming features and tools so they can bring their products to market as quickly as possible. Google team will also offer promotional support through Google marketing channels and will also get exclusive access to the Google Cloud Platform.
The other startup that received first batch of Google investment include:
Edwin,a personal English tutor powered by AI that Edwin prepares students looking to take English as a foreign language tests, such as the “Test of English as a Foreign Language” (TOEFL).
BotSociety, a tool that allows developers to design, prototype and user test voice interfaces.