Elegant flowThe Singapore- and Hong Kong-based social commerce platform, which has created a conversational AI customer engagement suite aimed toward Asian markets, said Wednesday it has raised one other $7 million in funding. The money shall be used to further develop its AI, in addition to to penetrate deeper into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and to enter the European market.

The startup’s fundraising and growth plans underscore the rapid growth of social commerce, where sellers use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok and YouTube to promote their goods and find recent customers, and consumers use those self same social media platforms to discover and buy things.

Social commerce is currently growing faster than conventional e-commerceThe estimated market value of social commerce within the Asia Pacific region alone is exceed $894 million by 2028which suggests a rise of 10.6% compared to 2022.

In this context, conversational AI is an enormous a part of the rise of social commerce. Using AI-powered chat capabilities means merchants can scale customer support to engage with masses of users while keeping their very own operations low-key. It also adds a software layer to the method, with analytics giving them greater insight into what’s working and what’s not, when and for whom, and the flexibility to automate several types of responses for various audiences.

The conversational AI industry is predicted to reach $49.9 billion by 2030, up 24.9% from $13.2 billion in 2024..

Given the necessity to scale not only social commerce but e-commerce generally, it’s no surprise that the conversational AI space is crowded. SleekFlow’s competitors include Messagebird, Respond.io, Gupshup, Omnichat, Trengo, WATI, Unifonic, and Verloop.

Henson Tsai, founder and CEO of SleekFlow, says the startup stands out from these and other rivals with its more streamlined features. These features include omnichannel capabilities (marketing across a couple of platform and interacting with a single dashboard), marketing automation, and a user-friendly flow builder that offers you the pliability to create unique chat experiences for every customer. Instant checkout capabilities include in-chat payment links, team collaboration features, built-in CRM platform integration with HubSpot and SalesForce, and e-commerce functionality.

The plan is to expand the platform “to offer fully automated sales and support processes via voice, call, and email to provide unparalleled value to our customers,” Tsai told TechCrunch.

The startup recently hired a brand new CTO, Gao Lei, an AI and large data veteran who has been a Silicon Valley technology leader for greater than twenty years.

“Since the appointment of our CTO, Silicon Valley veteran Gao Lei, we have significantly increased our engineering efforts to be at the forefront of innovative technologies and advanced AI,” Tsai said.

SleekFlow is built on multi-layer SaaS business model with an optional add-on for patrons who also want to arrange and launch a WhatsApp Business messaging channel. The startup attracts sales and marketing teams and is utilized by corporations starting from small teams to large enterprises within the insurance, healthcare, telecommunications and retail sectors. Its customers include Hong Kong Broadband Networks (HKBN), Delonghi, online furniture company Cellini and Malaysian home appliance maker Khind.

SleekFlow currently operates in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates. Tsai said that consumer behavior, especially in Indonesia — which is predicted to turn into considered one of the biggest consumer markets by 2030 — is rapidly shifting toward online shopping as a substitute of traditional brick-and-mortar stores. High purchasing power in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates signifies that these regions are also likely to be key markets for social commerce, Tsai added.

Seoul-based VC firm Atinum Investment led the newest round, with participation from existing investors AEF Greater Bay Area Fund and Transcend Capital Partners, in addition to Moses Tsang, former general partner of Goldman Sachs Group and chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia LLC. SleekFlow previously raised $8 million in a Series A round led by Tiger Global.

The company declined to comment on its valuation, but as well as to raising $15 million to date, other notable financial metrics include its annual recurring revenue (ARR) growing to $8-9 million by June 2024 from around $1-2 million in December 2022. Its staff has also grown to 160 from 60, and the number of consumers has increased by greater than 5,000 globally, Tsai told TechCrunch.