In March 2025, MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP) made its investment in Auxia, a technology company that provides an AI-powered platform to optimize customer experience.
The company offers a platform that enables companies to leverage their first-party data to optimize the entire customer experience through real-time AI-driven decision-making. The platform enhances and streamlines customer engagement across various marketing and product touchpoints, including onboarding, feature adoption, ongoing usage, and churn prevention.
Founding Story
Auxia was founded in 2022 by Sandeep Menon (CEO), who made significant contributions at Google in the area of marketing, and Ravi Desh (CTO), a seasoned engineering lead from Meta, to leverage AI to unlock the full potential of data-driven customer engagement.
CEO: Sandeep Menon
Sandeep Menon led global marketing initiatives at Google for over 15 years, including for Android, Chrome, Google Play, the “Next Billion Users” initiative, and Google Pay. He holds a degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD.
“At Google, I witnessed firsthand how AI could revolutionize marketing. Yet, its adoption remains limited outside of customer acquisition.”
CTO: Ravi Desh
Ravi Desh served as an engineering lead for WhatsApp’s payment infrastructure at Meta and has over 20 years of experience in global technology development. He is a graduate of RV College of Engineering in India.
“Strengthening relationships with existing customers is far more efficient than acquiring new ones—yet many companies are still behind when it comes to applying AI in this area.”
Key Differentiators of Auxia’s Platform
Auxia stands out from traditional marketing automation and customer engagement tools in the following ways:
1. Data Insight Engine
Auxia extracts complex patterns and correlations in customer behavior that are often overlooked by conventional rule-based systems. By leveraging first-party data, the platform uncovers previously untapped insights and unlocks new value from underutilized datasets.
2. Model-Driven Experimentation System
Instead of relying on conventional A/B testing, Auxia enables simultaneous hypothesis testing using multiple machine learning models. This allows for faster and more autonomous optimization of marketing strategies and engagement initiatives.
3. Personalized Responses by AI Agents
Integration of data across all consumer touchpoints – including web, apps, email, and SMS –enabling real-time, optimal responses tailored to each user based on their individual behavior.
MUIP’s Investment and Outlook
Auxia, which has grown steadily since its founding in 2022, is currently headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with a development center in Bengaluru, India. Backed by investors such as Vela Partners and Incubate Fund, the company now aims to further accelerate its growth through a new strategic investment from MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP).
Explaining the rationale behind this partnership, CEO Sandeep Menon said:
“MUFG is a global institution with deep expertise in financial services and a strong commitment to innovation. Since the launch of our service in early 2024, MUFG has been both a valuable partner and a client, playing a key role in our growth and success. Given MUIP’s strategic insight, global reach, and dedication to advancing financial technology, the partnership was a natural fit.”
The newly raised funds will be used to enhance Auxia’s AI personalization capabilities and support business expansion. The company is prioritizing investment in engineering talent to develop the next generation of AI agents. This includes not only expanding its analytics and content AI features but also building new AI decision-making agents.
CTO Ravi Desh added:
“Our vision is to unlock the full potential of AI in marketing. With next-generation AI agents, we aim to achieve a more nuanced understanding of customer behavior and deliver highly precise decision-making using a broader set of data signals.”
As part of its growth strategy, Auxia also plans to strengthen its sales and marketing teams to accelerate global expansion, especially in the U.S. The company is focusing on industries where customer engagement and retention are directly tied to revenue, such as financial services, e-commerce, and subscription-based businesses.
Collaboration with MUFG is already showing initial results. A proof-of-concept project within the MUFG Group has been promising — particularly in a digital banking initiative to optimize customer engagement, customer response rates have improved and user interaction steps have been significantly reduced.
“We’re now working closely with multiple MUFG business units to deliver solutions to concrete business challenges. Over the coming months, we plan to further strengthen our support for the Japanese market, drawing on insights from these ongoing initiatives,” (Menon)
