INDIA – Online food delivery platform, Swiggy has acquihired artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, Kint.io to boost its computer vision technology and consumer experience, reports ET.

According to Dale Vaz, Head of Engineering and Data Sciences at Swiggy, the acquihire aims at enabling Swiggy benefit from Kinto.io’s expertise in dep learning and AI.

“The team at Kint.io comes with an exceptional understanding and expertise in AI, machine learning and data sciences.

This acquihire is part of Swiggy’s strategy to scale our tech prowess by bringing in entrepreneurial teams that can solve unique customer problems while leveraging the network and resources at Swiggy.

We provide a unique mix of strong entrepreneurial DNA and professional leadership that gives startup teams the ownership and leverage to move fast and make a big impact,” said Dale Vaz.

The acquihire will see the founding members of Kint.io, Pavithra Solai Jawahar and Jagannathan Veeraraghavan join the Swiggy team.

“The team joins us at a very exciting time. The focus has never been more intense on building industry-changing technology in AI and other areas.

We look forward to working together on great new features and capabilities,” Dale Vaz added.

Kint.io is the first technology-led acquihire for Swiggy, as it makes large investments in its long-term strategy of building artificial intelligence first platforms but however, Swiggy did not disclose the financial details of the deal.

In its biggest-ever fundraise till date, the company raised US$1 billion in December 2018 from Naspers, Tencent, venture capital firms SAIF Partners and Accel among others.

Swiggy primarily competes with Zomato besides, UberEats and Foodpanda India- which was acquired by home-grown cab-hailing major Ola in 2017.

After its latest fundraiser, Swiggy’s valuation skyrocketed to around US$3.3 billion.

Both Swiggy and Zomato posted net sales in the region of US$62.7million in the financial year 2017-18.

For Swiggy, this was more than triple the number compared to the previous financial year as it caught up with Zomato.

Last year, the food delivery platform brought industry veteran Dale Vaz as head of engineering to lead its efforts in building the next generation AI driven platform for hyperlocal discovery and on-demand delivery.