After Verloop, Muskesh Bansal-Led NuPlay Eyes Another Acquisition In 12 Months

Barely two years old and one acquisition down, enterprise AI startup NuPlay, rebranded from its earlier name Nurix AI, is already scouting its next target. Cofounder and CEO Mukesh Bansal, who erstwhile helmed ecommerce platform Myntra and gym chain Cult.fit, said the startup is expecting to close another amalgamation deal in the next six to 12 months.

Without disclosing the name of the target entity, Bansal said the acquisition would enhance the startup’s expansion.

“Acquisition strategy is more about region and customer footprint expansion,” Bansal said. Unique capabilities will factor in, he added, but the primary motivation is to get to a much larger footprint faster.

The Verloop.io acquisition, announced last month for an undisclosed sum, was the first application of it. Bansal confirmed the transaction was structured as cash plus equity but declined to share the value. 

What NuPlay got was access to roughly 150 customers that Verloop already catered to. Additionally, the decade-old startup already commanded a strong market presence in the West Asian market. NuPlay now intends to double down on the region.

Growth Strategy

The startup’s flagship platform, which has the same name, builds AI agents that automate enterprise workflows such as customer service, claims processing and catalog management. Its vision is an autopilot enterprise, where AI agents handle routine tasks while humans focus on oversight and decision-making.

Complementing NuPlay is NuStack, a platform that helps enterprises modernise legacy systems, making them AI-ready while reducing migration time and costs.  

The startup’s clientele features the likes of super.money, Myntra, Cult.fit, Aditya Birla Capital, among others. It currently generates about half of its revenue from India and half from the US. 

However, Bansal anticipates a shift in the revenue mix, with the US market expected to bring in nearly 80% of the company’s revenue over the next 3-4 years.

In India, the startup is targeting to expand its client base with the addition of 50 large enterprises in the near time. 

NuPlay’s average deal size is around $150K, with contracts going up to $1 Mn. Its largest deals to date have come from India.

On an industry basis, NuPlay has seen maximum demand come from the retail segment, which Bansal terms as a massive, operations-intensive industry. Retail has traditionally been heavy on catalogue management, marketplace vendor onboarding, pricing and merchandising, and inbound customer volume, an industry ripe for AI disruption. 

“Our team has deep retail expertise, with employees from companies such as Flipkart who understand key functions including marketplace operations, cataloguing, pricing and merchandising,” Bansal said. 

Financial services is a selective second, with insurance identified as the next vertical for productisation. The company expects to stay heads-down in retail for the next two to three years.

Funding and Future Growth

Bansal said NuPlay is now moving beyond the validation stage and is focused on scaling the business. Its current run rate is about $10 Mn, and the startup expects to hit the $100 Mn target by 2029. The company is targeting 3X annual growth over the next few years, with a near-term revenue goal of $25–30 Mn in the next 12–15 months. It also aims to increase its average deal size to $250K–300K over the same period.

NuPlay has raised a total of approximately $42.2 Mn over multiple funding rounds, including a $27.5 Mn seed/Series A round in September 2024 and a $16.4 Mn round led by Prosus back in March.

It competes with players such as Yellow.ai, Skit.ai, Gupshup, Reliance-owned Haptik in the enterprise AI market. 

The startup was incubated at Bansal’s Meraki Labs and has grown to a team of more than 150 employees.  In parallel, Bansal has also launched Fermi AI, a Singapore-based edtech startup focused on AI-first learning for school students in STEM subjects across India and the US.

[Edited by Akshit Pushkarna]

The post After Verloop, Muskesh Bansal-Led NuPlay Eyes Another Acquisition In 12 Months appeared first on Inc42 Media.