NuPlay, the enterprise AI startup led by former Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal, is hunting for its second acquisition target. The company expects to close another deal within six to twelve months, Bansal confirmed in early August 2026, barely weeks after completing its first acquisition of conversational AI firm Verloop.
The two-year-old company, previously known as Nurix AI, is not buying technology. It is buying geography and customers.
What NuPlay actually got from Verloop
The Verloop deal, announced in July 2026 for an undisclosed sum, handed NuPlay access to roughly 150 enterprise customers. More valuable: Verloop had spent a decade building presence in West Asia, a market NuPlay now plans to double down on.
Bansal confirmed the transaction was structured as cash plus equity but declined to share the value.
“Acquisition strategy is more about region and customer footprint expansion. Unique capabilities will factor in, but the primary motivation is to get to a much larger footprint faster.”
— Mukesh Bansal, CEO, NuPlay
This is not how most enterprise AI startups talk about M&A. The standard playbook is to acquire talent or proprietary models. NuPlay is treating acquisitions as distribution channel purchases.
The $100 million target and the US bet
NuPlay currently generates about half its revenue from India and half from the US. That split is about to swing hard. Bansal expects the US to contribute nearly 80% of revenue over the next three to four years.
The company's current annual run rate sits at approximately $10 million. It is targeting $25-30 million in the next 12-15 months, implying roughly 3x annual growth. Average deal size today is around $150,000, with contracts running up to $1 million. NuPlay wants to push that average to $250,000-300,000 over the same period.
In India, the startup is targeting 50 large enterprise additions in the near term. Its largest deals to date have come from domestic clients.
Why retail, not banking
Enterprise AI vendors typically chase financial services first. NuPlay went the other direction. Retail is its primary vertical, and Bansal expects the company to stay heads-down in retail for another two to three years.
The logic: retail is operations-intensive with high-volume, repetitive tasks. Catalog management, vendor onboarding, pricing, merchandising, inbound customer queries. These are AI agent sweet spots.
"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. Insurance is next up for productization. The client list already includes Aditya Birla Capital alongside Myntra, Cult.fit, and super.money.
Explores the difference between AI agents (what NuPlay builds) and generative AI for enterprise operations
Funding and competitive positioning
NuPlay has raised approximately $42.2 million across multiple rounds. A $27.5 million seed/Series A closed in September 2024. Prosus led a $16.4 million round in March 2026.
The company competes with Yellow.ai, Skit.ai, Gupshup, and Reliance-owned Haptik in the enterprise AI market. The Verloop acquisition adds another former competitor to the fold.
NuPlay was incubated at Bansal's Meraki Labs and has grown to more than 150 employees. In parallel, Bansal has also launched Fermi AI, a Singapore-based edtech startup focused on AI-first STEM learning for school students.
Logicity's Take
NuPlay's acquisition strategy is a bet that in enterprise AI, distribution matters more than model differentiation. With $42M raised and a $100M revenue target by 2029, the math requires aggressive deal flow. The Verloop playbook (buy customers, buy geography) suggests NuPlay's next target will be a regional player with established enterprise relationships, likely in the US or Europe. For fintech teams evaluating enterprise AI vendors, the consolidation wave makes due diligence on vendor stability more important than feature comparisons.
Whether NuPlay can execute 3x annual growth while integrating acquisitions will determine if the strategy works. The next 12 months will answer that question twice: once when the second deal closes, and again when integration results show up in revenue numbers.
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Source: Inc42 Media / Shraddha Goled
Huma Shazia
Senior AI & Tech Writer
Produced with AI assistance and reviewed by the Logicity editorial team. Learn more in our Editorial Policy.
