SleekFlow, a Singapore- and Hong Kong-headquartered social commerce platform that has constructed a conversational AI suite for buyer engagement focused to Asian markets, mentioned Wednesday it had secured an additional $7 million in funding. The cash might be used to proceed growing its AI, in addition to penetrate deeper into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and make inroads into Europe.
The startup’s fundraise and plans for progress underscore the fast rise of social commerce — the place sellers leverage platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok and YouTube to market their items and discover new clients, and customers use the identical social media platforms to find and purchase issues.
Social commerce is at the moment rising quicker than standard e-commerce. The estimated market worth of social commerce within the Asia Pacific area alone is anticipated to exceed $894 million by 2028, representing a 10.6% progress from 2022.
Within that, conversational AI is a giant a part of how social commerce has developed. Using AI-based chat performance means sellers can scale their customer support to work with lots of customers whereas nonetheless retaining their very own operations lean. It additionally provides a programmatic layer to the method, with analytics giving them extra perception into what works, and what doesn’t, and when and to whom, and to automate completely different sorts of responses to completely different audiences accordingly.
The conversational AI trade is projected to succeed in $49.9 billion by 2030, up 24.9% from $13.2 billion in 2024.
Given the scaling crucial of not simply social commerce however e-commerce general, it’s maybe unsurprising to listen to that the conversational AI area is a crowded one. SleekFlow’s opponents embody Messagebird, Respond.io, Gupshup, Omnichat, Trengo, WATI, Unifonic and Verloop.
Henson Tsai, the founder and CEO of SleekFlow, says that the startup units itself other than these and different rivals by means of extra streamlined options. Those options embody omnichannel capabilities (that’s, advertising to multiple platform and interface from a single dashboard), advertising automation, and a user-friendly movement builder that allows flexibility in creating distinctive chat experiences for every buyer. Instant checkout capabilities embody in-chat fee hyperlinks, collaborative staff options, built-in CRM platform integrations with HubSpot and SalesForce, and e-commerce performance.
The plan is to develop its platform “with offerings underway for fully automated sales and support journeys in voice, calls and email to deliver unparalleled value to our customers across,” Tsai advised TechCrunch.
The startup additionally lately appointed a brand new CTO, Gao Lei, an AI and large knowledge veteran with greater than twenty years of tech management in Silicon Valley.
“Since the appointment of our chief technology officer, Gao Lei, a Silicon Valley veteran, we have significantly increased our engineering efforts to be at the forefront of innovative tech and advanced AI,” Tsai mentioned.
SleekFlow is constructed on a multi-tier SaaS enterprise mannequin with an optionally available add-on for purchasers who need to additionally arrange and run a WhatsApp Business messaging channel. The startup courts gross sales and advertising groups and is utilized by firms starting from small groups to giant companies throughout the insurance coverage, healthcare, telecom, and retail sectors. Hong Kong Broadband Networks (HKBN), Delonghi, on-line furnishings firm Cellini, and Malaysia’s dwelling client electrical equipment maker Khind are amongst its clients.
SleekFlow is operational at present in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates. Of these, Tsai mentioned that client conduct particularly in Indonesia — which is projected to grow to be one of many largest client markets by 2030 — has been quickly shifting in direction of on-line procuring over conventional brick-and-mortar shops. High spending energy in Saudi Arabia and the UAE means these areas are additionally more likely to be key markets for…
