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Entrepreneur Gautam Rajesh Shelley was looking to help businesses connect with their customers in a much closer and deeper manner. 

While pursuing his BTech degree in 2018, Gautam, now 25, launched Triny to provide AI-based chatbot and WhatsApp marketing services to businesses.

The startup, based in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, aims to help businesses connect with their users via WhatsApp in a hybrid manner using AI chatbots and human support. 

“We started the company while in college in early 2018. We first started by selling Facebook chatbots and then shifted to Web chatbots and now our offering has both Web and WhatsApp chat assistants,” Gautam says.  Currently, the startup has a nine member team.

“In college days, to validate the idea, we started pitching to multiple industries like restaurants, hospitals, and educational consultants among others, and then finally we started getting clients in the education space. Now we have clients from multiple sectors like BFSI, ecommerce, and more,” Gautam tells YourStory.

Connecting businesses with users

According to the founder, Triny currently has three products – AiTimey, AiJenny, and AiSensy.

Launched in 2018, AiTimey is an AI-powered chat assistant for businesses to address customer queries. The solution has been deployed by SRM University, Chandigarh University, and many others. 

In 2020, Triny introduced AiJenny, its first B2C product. “AiJenny is an AI-based chat assistant that helps Data Science enthusiasts to find information on data science, machine learning, etc., and it also suggests various courses from top online education portal personalised according to the user’s profile,” Gautam explains.

However, Triny’s latest product, AiSensy, is a SaaS Platform based on WhatsApp Business API. The founder explains that it is a platform where businesses can connect chatbots, run WhatsApp marketing campaigns, boost their sales, and lead gen using WhatsApp. 

“AiSensy is a SaaS platform that is a complete offering in terms of WhatsApp Marketing. Businesses can drive lead generation and sales automatically via Smart AI chatbots, send notifications to thousands of users with smart segmentation, and manage all their contacts in the WhatsApp oriented CRM,” he adds.

Business and more 

Speaking about the business model, the founder explains that the startup first offers a free trial to the client businesses to understand the platform and also help them get the WhatsApp Business API for free. Post the free trial, Triny charges the clients for the services starting from Rs 4,200 on a pay-as-you-go model. 

“AiSensy has signed up more than 30 clients with revenues of more than Rs 5 lakh in just two months of its launch,” Gautam claims. 

He adds that Triny’s clientele includes brands such as Lovely Professional University, SRM University, FlexoSpaces, Melvano, Suwasthi, and Lens Caravan among many others.

According to media reports, the AI-based chatbot market size stood at $2.6 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow to $9.4 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of over 29 percent. Reliance-acquired Haptik is a prominent player in the AI chatbot space. 

While Gautam declined to share about the initial investment made in the startup, he says that the bootstrapped startup is not looking to raise funds actively.

Speaking about future plans, Gautam reveals that the bootstrapped startup is looking to further enhance its platform, enable more personalisation, and make it easier for businesses to stay connected with their users.