Cisco buys MindMeld for $125m in cash to add 'conversational AI' to collaboration

MindMeld was backed by CIA venture capital firm In-Q-Tel

Cisco has become the latest technology giant to buy-up artificial intelligence technology with the $125m cash purchase of five-year-old MindMeld.

The company claims to have developed a "conversational AI" platform capable of conducting human-like conversations, which can be delivered via any application or device.

MindMeld also claims to have ten patents covering its technology, and MindMeld staff will join Cisco's Cloud Collaboration group when the acquisition is completed.

Cisco primarily sees MindMeld's platform being integrated into its collaboration software and services, such as Cisco Spark, the company's all-in-one team collaboration device.

"Integrating MindMeld into the Cisco Spark platform will transform how users interact in Cisco Spark Spaces, Cisco Spark Meetings, and Cisco Spark Care," suggested Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Cisco IoT and Applications Group.

Despite being in business for five years, MindMeld only launched its Deep-Domain Conversational AI platform in November 2016, although it claims that its API is already in use among 1,200 companies worldwide.

MindMeld was founded by Timothy Tuttle, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he received his PhD. MindMeld is Tuttle's third start-up - he was also behind image search company Truveo, which was sold to AOL.

Trollope justified the acquisition for Cisco by claiming that while conversational bots have boomed in popularity in recent years - since the introduction of Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa - they still lack the sophistication to conduct unstructured conversations.

"They do OK with canned responses, but try to have a semi-unstructured conversation to get them to do something and the experience tends to be poor, frustrating and decidedly non-human," he wrote in a blog posting, revealing the Cisco acquisition.

Investors in MindMeld include Samsung, Intel, Telefonica and Google Ventures - and In-Q-Tel, the non-profit venture capital outfit established to support the work of the US Central Intelligence Agency. The deal is expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2017.

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