Bengaluru-based AI startup Halli Labs acquired by Google

Bengaluru: Online giant Google has acquired its first ever Indian start-up from the country’s Silicon Valley--Bengaluru, named Halli Labs, at an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was announced by the start-up in a blogpost, without revealing any further details.

Halli (meaning village in Kannada) Labs is 4-month old start-up which works in the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) field and applies the techniques to “old problems and domains” — in order “to help technology enable people to do whatever it is that they want to do, easier and better”.

“We will be joining Google’s Next Billion Users team to help get more technology and information into more people’s hands around the world. We couldn’t be more excited!” Halli Labs Team wrote in the blogpost.

The Bengaluru-based start-up was founded by Pankaj Gupta, who is an alumnus of IIT Delhi and holds a PhD. in Computer Science from Stanford University. According to his LinkedIn profile, Gupta had start-ups in San Francisco. He worked in Stayzilla as Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer, and also with Twitter for nearly five years.

Google is working aggressively towards expanding its AI and machine learning portfolio. This is Google’s fourth acquisition based on AI, followed by its deals with DeepMind Technologies, Jetpac, and Dark Blue Labs.

VP of Product Management at Google, Caesar Sengupta confirmed the acquisition in a tweet, congratulating the firm. “Welcome @Pankaj and the team at @halli_labs to Google. Looking forward to building some cool stuff together,” he said.