WhatsApp is utilized by greater than two billion all over the world, and is a crucial instrument for a lot of small companies. However as they scale up, even WhatsApp for Enterprise won’t have the ability to sustain with their wants. That’s the place WATI (WhatsApp Workforce Inbox) steps in. Constructed on WhatsApp for Enterprise’ API, WATI has buyer gross sales and engagement instruments created for the messaging app. As we speak the Hong Kong and Malaysia-headquartered startup introduced it has raised $23 billion in Sequence B funding to scale its group and product.
The spherical was led by Tiger World with participation from returning buyers Sequoia Capital India & Southeast Asia, and new buyers DST World Companions and Shopify (marking the e-commerce platform’s first enterprise funding in a startup working within the Southeast Asia area). WATI’s final spherical of funding was an $8.3 million Sequence A introduced 10 months in the past, and its new spherical brings its whole raised to greater than $35 million since 2020.
WATI founders Bianco Ho and Ken Yeung started working collectively in 2016, constructing Clare.AI, an omnichannel AI digital assistant for big Asia enterprises. In 2020, they launched WATI to provide SMBs a self-service, low-code product on the WhatsApp for Enterprise API. The startup at the moment has greater than 6,000 clients in 75 international locations, together with SMBs in areas like home cleansing, colleges, training facilities, edtech, fintech, medical services, D2C manufacturers and Shopify shops.
Ho informed TechCrunch that whereas she and Yeung had been engaged on Clare.AI, “our assumption was that solely bigger enterprises had the assets to deploy a profitable digital assistant with synthetic intelligence.” After a couple of years of working with their shoppers, nonetheless, the 2 realized many had been searching for a less complicated resolution, so WATI was created. A part of the rationale for its launch was the digital acceleration attributable to the pandemic, as many companies rushed to get on-line.
WATI founders Ken Yeung and Bianca Ho
In lots of rising markets, and mature markets like Europe, WhatsApp is the popular communication channel between clients and companies. WATI helps non-technical companies scale their buyer assist, buyer engagement and acquisition via its CRM.
WATI’s buyer engagement software program is constructed on WhatsApp for Enterprise’ API and lets shoppers ship personalised notifications. The platform features a collaborative group inbox utilized by a number of brokers, and options like sensible routing, canned responses, knowledge tagging and analytics. Interactions could be automated via low-code workflows and chatbots, and related to e-commerce platforms and CRMs. WATI additionally has integrations with platforms like Zoho, Shopify and Google Sheets.
An instance of how WATI is used is a big e-commerce firm that depends on its to handle campaigns like Prime Day. The corporate normally will get 60 to 100 messages a day from clients via WATI’s group inbox, nearly all of which come from its web site’s WhatsApp chat, and sends about 30,000 messages every single day when campaigns are lively.
One other instance is an edtech shopper that has used WATI for nearly two years. They depend on about 50 templates a month for lead technology, nurturing, fee reminders and sophistication updates, and ship 20,000 to 30,000 messages a day. WATI additionally helps them get high-quality natural leads via a WhatsApp widget on their web site.
Ho stated WATI’s closest competitor is the native WhatsApp for Enterprise app, which most SMBs begin off utilizing, however WATI is an appropriate match for them as their companies scale.
Funding shall be used on hiring and investing in WATI’s product stack for low-code automation. The corporate additionally has go-to-market plans for rising markets, like Latin America and Southeast Asia
