About Gupshup
Gupshup was founded in 2004 by Beerud Sheth, initially building SMS-based group messaging and communication tools before evolving significantly over time into a broader conversational engagement platform as mobile messaging habits shifted toward smartphone-based chat apps, particularly WhatsApp, which has become an enormously dominant messaging platform across many markets including India, Latin America, and parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, creating significant business interest in using WhatsApp as a customer engagement and commerce channel rather than only for personal messaging.
Gupshup's platform provides businesses with tools to build and deploy conversational chatbots and automated messaging experiences across WhatsApp and other messaging channels, handling functions such as customer support, marketing promotions, order updates, and increasingly conversational commerce, in which customers can browse products, ask questions, and complete purchases directly within a chat conversation rather than needing to visit a separate website or app, a commerce pattern that has become particularly significant in markets with very high mobile messaging app penetration but historically lower e-commerce website usage. The company has built particularly deep relationships and infrastructure supporting WhatsApp Business API integrations, positioning itself as infrastructure connecting businesses to the messaging platform that has become the dominant communication channel for billions of users globally, especially across emerging markets where Gupshup has particularly strong customer relationships and market presence given its Indian origins. Gupshup has increasingly incorporated generative AI capabilities into its conversational bot-building tools, letting businesses build more sophisticated, natural-feeling automated conversations rather than the more rigid, menu-driven chatbot interactions common in earlier-generation messaging automation tools. The company's customers span businesses across many industries and geographies seeking to engage customers through mobile messaging channels rather than traditional websites or apps. Gupshup has raised substantial venture funding from investors including Tiger Global and Fidelity, reaching unicorn status, competing with other conversational messaging platforms including MessageBird and Infobip.
