Customer and sales engagement tool WATI (WhatsApp Team Inbox) has raised $23 million in its Series B round led by Tiger Global with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia. DST Global Partners and Shopify are the new investors who also joined the round.
This marks Shopify’s first venture investment in a startup operating in the Southeast Asia region.
WATI has raised over $35 million since its inception including $8.3 million Series A round 10 months ago. The startup plans to use the funds to ramp up hiring, and product development, and expand the customer base in India and other key markets.
Launched by Bianca Ho and Ken Yeung, WATI helps SMB with a self-service, low-code product on the WhatsApp Business API. The platform enables companies to have scalable, and personalised conversations with its customer engagement software which is built on WhatsApp’s Business API.
WATI claims to have grown its Indian customer base by 60% and the company eyes to deepen its reach in the country. So far, it has over 6,000 customers across 78 countries including SMBs providing domestic house cleaning services to schools, tutorial centres, medical institutions and e-commerce, Shopify stores, and others.
WATI was among the fifth cohort of Sequoia’s accelerator program Surge. The batch also included Absolute, ADPList, ApnaKlub, Belora, Durianpay, Dyte, Gumlet, Locad, Mailmodo, Mesh, Multiplier, OneCode, PowerPlay, Pankhuri, Rara Delivery, Revery, TWID, Vah Vah, Vara, Veera Health and Virtual Internships.
As per Fintrackr’s data, Tiger Global has backed more than 45 Indian startups in 2022 so far. Jar, Vecmocon, CleverTap, Jodo, Progcap, Payglocal, Groyyo, and Battery Smart are the recent deals closed by the New York-based fund.
