Hyderabad-based GVK Group scion Keshav Reddy is betting big on an AI-powered future with his startup Equal, which aims to touch one million daily active users (DAU) by mid-2026 on its new call assistant platform Equal AI.
The AI-powered call assistant will go a step further than just identifying unknown calls. It will also pick up the call on behalf of the users, respond if needed, and only then inform the user if they should take the call.
The problem Equal AI aims to solve is to act as an assistant to the user, especially in the age of spam and scam calls, as well as the increasing prevalence of online delivery, Reddy said.
While receiving calls on the user's behalf, the AI assistant also records a live transcript of the ongoing call and displays it to the user in case they wish to take over the conversation, he said.
"And if the user actually wants to take over the call, or if the AI is not able to get the context of the conversation, the user takes over and the AI assistant drops off," Reddy said.
The startup, which has roughly 110 employees based in Hyderabad, began in the business-to-business vertical, where the company now processes more than a billion transactions for about 90 million people across the banking, financial services, and insurance domains, as well as personal finance management, among others.
Founded in 2022, the startup has Rajeev Ranjan, the former director of engineering at Swiggy, and Krishna Prasad as its cofounders.Backed by investors like Prosus, Blume, DST Global Partners, Tomales Bay Capital, Valiant Capital, Binny Bansal, Karan Adani, Kunal Shah, Kunal Bahl, Nikhil Kamath and Parth Jindal, Equal AI is positioning itself as the only AI-backed call assistant that can listen to conversations and talk on behalf of the user, Reddy said
-- Aashish Aryan, Business Standard
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