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The funding round saw notable lead investors like Tiger Global, Transcend Capital, and AEF Greater Bay Area Fund, managed by Gobi Partners GBA, GP of the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund
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Funds will be used for product developments and market expansion into Singapore, Malaysia, and the Southeast Asian region as part of its global expansion plans into the UK and Europe
Following its 7-figure pre-Series A funding round last year, Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund-backed SaaS omnichannel social commerce platform SleekFlow announces the completion of its USD8 million Series A funding round, led by New York-based investment firm Tiger Global Partners, an early investor of Facebook and Bytedance, with notable investors like Transcend Capital and AEF Greater Bay Area Fund, managed by Gobi Partners GBA – the GP of Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (AHKEF).
The fresh injection of funds will be channeled to facilitating its strategic market penetration into Southeast Asia, specifically Singapore and Malaysia, as part of its expansion plans into the UK, Europe, and other emerging markets. The funds will also be used to scale the platform’s capabilities with fintech and data analytics functions, one-click checkouts via popular social media platforms, centralised product listings, and easy in-chat payment integrations to enhance seamless workflow for O2O and e-commerce brands.
Founded in 2019, SleekFlow started as an omnichannel social messaging platform that is now serving over 5,000 businesses globally, including Bossini, Lalamove Hong Kong, and PSB Academy. Centralising over 2,500 tools and messaging channels to streamline communications for businesses, SleekFlow’s newly launched fintech products, social-to-payment feature, and campaign automation for Instagram shops, TikTok, and live-streaming aims to better cater to the needs of a burgeoning social commerce market by enhancing their social buying journeys holistically.
“Consumers now spend 80 per cent of their time on social platforms and it is already a habit to discover and buy products directly from there. The social commerce market is expected to rise to USD3.37 trillion by 2028, and SleekFlow aims to drive this e-commerce revolution by being the top social commerce unified hub – merging conversations, product catalogues, payment solutions, and order management into one for businesses. With investor trust from Tiger Global Partners, Transcend Capital, and AEF Greater Bay Area Fund, SleekFlow will enhance product developments to include detailed buyer journey tracking and analytics, which will provide invaluable actionable insights for enterprises to unlock their social commerce power as they embrace this unstoppable megatrend,” shares Henson Tsai, Founder & CEO of SleekFlow.
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New One-Click Checkout Function for Comprehensive Social Order-to-Payment
In Southeast Asia alone, 90% of digital merchants are accepting digital payments for profitability and survival. Subsequently, a swift and coherent chat-to-checkout experience has emerged as a prominent factor in driving sales and conversions from various digital sales channels.
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.
Multi-Agent Collaboration to Track and Retain Sales Leads
Further to that, as one in five dollars spent on retail in Southeast Asia is transacted through social media, more consumers are looking to businesses offering convenient communications. 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 to track and retain potential sales leads from both online and offline channels.
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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.
Chibo Tang, Managing Partner of Gobi Partners GBA shares, “Despite the economic downturn, the social commerce market is going stronger than ever, reaching USD474 billion in 2021. Eight in 10 US businesses anticipate increased sales via social media within the next three years. 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.”
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.
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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.