Conversational AI company Gupshup has roped in ex-Awfis CFO Ravi Dugar as its new CFO. In his new role, Dugar will work closely with Gupshup’s leadership team on long-term financial planning, capital allocation and investor engagement as well as supporting strategic initiatives across product innovation and market growth.
His role will also include strengthening financial processes & compliances and evaluating strategic opportunities such as partnerships, investments and acquisitions.
Dugar helmed the financial department of listed coworking space provider Awfis till early February after tendering his resignation in January. He worked as Awfis’ CFO for over three years and was part of the team that led the company’s IPO in 2024.
Prior to Awfis, he has worked with companies like Bharti Airtel, Livguard, Lava, among others, during a career that spans over two decades.
“His experience leading the finance function through a successful IPO and building robust financial frameworks will be invaluable as we continue to scale the company and build a durable foundation for our next phase of growth,” Gupshup’s founder and CEO Beerud Sheth said.
In a statement, Gupshup said that the appointment comes at a time when it is entering “its next phase of growth”. The company said that it is working on accelerating enterprise adoption, advancing product capabilities and strengthening the financial foundation needed to support its long-term plans.
Its long-term plans may include an initial public offering (IPO) in India soon. Speaking with Inc42 in February 2025, Sheth confirmed that the company was working on shaping out its IPO plans.
“Gupshup has received strong indicative interest from public market investors. However, as a US company, we are trying to figure out the legal, tax, and financial issues around the reverse flipping to India, before an Indian IPO becomes feasible,” he had said back then.
On the road to the public markets, Gupshup has pivoted towards an AI-first model. It also has been actively working on leaning its team size, letting go roughly 500 employees in total across multiple restructuring rounds between late 2024 and April 2025.
Founded in 2004 by Sheth, Gupshup began its journey as an SMS and cloud telephony company before evolving into a communications SaaS platform for enterprises before transitioning to a conversational AI platform by 2024.
As of now, the San Francisco-headquartered company operates a conversational messaging platform that enables automated, contextual, and two-way communication between businesses and their customers.
It supports over 30 messaging channels, including WhatsApp, SMS, RCS, and Instagram, and offers a full suite of tools spanning messaging APIs, bot-building frameworks, and analytics dashboards. These capabilities allow developers and marketers to build rich, interactive customer experiences at scale, powered by AI and machine learning.
To date, Gupshup has raised over $480 Mn in funding, raising its last cheque of$60 Mn in July 2025. It is backed by investors like Tiger Global, Fidelity, Think Investment, and Malabar Investments.
The post Gupshup Ropes In Ex-Awfis Executive Ravi Dugar As CFO appeared first on Inc42 Media.
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