SleekFlow raises USD $8 million in Series A funding: Accelerating market penetration and expanding product development
Following its 7-figure pre-Series A funding round last year, Alibaba-backed SaaS omnichannel social commerce platform SleekFlow announced the completion of a USD $8 million Series A funding round. The financing was led by top-tier New York-based investment firm Tiger Global Partners whose notable investments include Facebook, Bytedance, UiPath, Toast, and Databricks, followed by Transcend Capital and AEF Greater Bay Area Fund which is managed by Gobi Partners GBA. This round of funding is Tiger Global Partners’ second investment in a Hong Kong SaaS startup after investing in a unicorn in April last year. Meanwhile, Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (AEF) also participated in on SleekFlow’s pre-Series A round last year.
The fresh injection of funds from the Series A round will empower SleekFlow’s strategic market penetration in Southeast Asia, specifically in Singapore and Malaysia, while extending Asia’s success to the UK and Europe, as well as other emerging markets. SleekFlow will also use this investment on continued product development within fintech and analytics to uncover emerging trends in the one-click checkout process on popular social media platforms across all dimensions, such as centralized product listing and easy in-chat payments, etc.
Beginning as an omnichannel social messaging platform and serving over 5,000 businesses globally, including Sandro, Maje, NARS Cosmetics, Belle, Bossini, Lalamove and PSB Academy, SleekFlow is set to lead the growing market for social commerce by deeply investing in more fintech products, including checkout and campaign automation for Instagram shops, TikTok, and live-streaming. It also aims to enhance the social buying journey holistically by upgrading the existing e-commerce integration, inventory management system, and booking system to establish an all-in-one social commerce platform.
Since 2019, SleekFlow has been enabling sales-accelerating marketing collaborations and seamless customer support through centralizing business communications across multiple channels on a unified platform. The platform integrates over 2,500 tools and messaging channels, such as WhatsApp Official API, Facebook Messenger, Instagram chat, SMS and Telegram, by utilising the smart routing and targeted automation campaigns to help businesses track and retain potential sales leads from both online and offline avenues. With the newly launched payment feature, businesses can now get paid in chat directly, developing a complete conversion funnel on social for boosting revenue and profits.
(Above: SleekFlow Omnichannel Chat Interface)
“People nowadays spend more than 80% of their time on social platforms. It’s already a habit for us to discover products and even buy on social channels directly. The huge social commerce market potential is expected to rise to 3.37 trillion by 2028, so we are excited that SleekFlow is part of this e-commerce revolution. Other than our market expansion to the UK, EU and other thriving social commerce markets, the new fund injection will be invested in advanced product development including detailed buyer journey tracking and analytics which provide invaluable actionable insights for enterprises. With the trust we gained from Tiger Global, Transcend Capital, and AEF Greater Bay Area Fund, SleekFlow strives to be the top social commerce unified hub, merging conversations, product catalogues, payment solutions and order management for businesses to unlock their social commerce power and embrace this unstoppable megatrend.” said Henson Tsai, Founder & CEO of SleekFlow.
Chibo Tang, Managing Partner of Gobi Partners GBA, said, “Despite the economic downturn, the social commerce market is going stronger than ever, reaching USD 474 B in 2021. 8 in 10 US businesses anticipate selling on social media within the next three years according to Statista. SleekFlow’s innovative solutions will help these global commerce businesses meet the evolving needs of customers who are turning to social channels to purchase more than ever before.”
Multi-Agent Collaboration to Track and Retain Sales Leads
Brands are now confronted with the challenges of managing multiple messaging channels and social media platforms simultaneously, notwithstanding existing marketing campaigns and sales promotions.
SleekFlow centralises communications across multiple messaging channels such as Official WhatsApp Business API, Facebook Messenger, Instagram chat, SMS, and Telegram to enable sales-accelerating marketing collaborations and seamless customer support. The omnichannel team inbox aggregates customer data and facilitates customer enquiries using smart routing and targeted automation campaigns to promote multi-agent collaboration, effectively helping businesses track and retain potential sales leads from both online and offline channels.
(Above: SleekFlow Chat Flow)
The smart automation tool also curates responses to customer inquiries in real-time, further collating the information to qualify and direct sales leads to the most qualified agent for follow-up action. Such key features have seen 42 per cent more qualifying leads and two times the customer conversion rate for businesses across industries. Furthermore, by using one corporate account for all customer engagements, multiple teams can collaborate and project a unified brand image, and ensure continuity in end-to-end customer engagements.
SleekFlow's Latest One-click Checkout Completes a Comprehensive Order-to-Payment Ecosystem
(Above: SleekFlow Payment Flow)
To help businesses adapt to the global shift towards social commerce, SleekFlow’s newly launched one-click checkout function and social-to-payment ecosystem provide a comprehensive solution for both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar businesses to receive payments directly via social chats. The newly advanced chat-and-pay feature effectively connects businesses and consumers with a faster, easier, and more well-secured path to purchase, unlocking a new avenue for business profits and revenue.
Marketing Analytics and Automation for Curated Customer Experience
To better support business marketing teams, SleekFlow introduced a new sales analytics and customer service performance tracking as part of their new Customer Relationship Management function. Following their recent collaboration with Shopify, customers can now be filtered based on their purchase preferences, to effectively track and analyse consumer profiles and behaviours for personalised communications and targeted marketing outreach.
(Above: SleekFlow Analytics Interface)
Gone are the days of saving multiple customer contacts for sales promotions and reaching out to them individually. SleekFlow’s broadcasting function enables the mass dissemination of automated and personalised messages on platforms like WhatsApp, allowing businesses to reach thousands of customers at one go and assigning customer requests and enquiries to the relevant teams for immediate assistance.
Adopting a customer-centric approach to its solutions, 80% of SleekFlow’s features are derived from customer feedback. Noting that 82% of consumers now expect an immediate response to their sales enquiries, businesses can soon expect new features like automated customer response in the comments sections of social channels like Instagram and Facebook. SleekFlow is also working to integrate call and e-mail functions on the platform to enhance communication flow between businesses and consumers.
From its founding team of three, SleekFlow has now expanded to a strong team of 60 team members across regions including the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, serving over 5,000 customers globally across industries. Bolstered by its valuation growth of 1,200% in the last 12 months and 500% revenue growth after its recent pre-Series A funding round backed by Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneur's Fund (AHKEF) last year, SleekFlow aims to scale the business internationally, from countries across Southeast Asia to the UK and Europe.
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