Superchat has the ambition to become the operating system for SMEs; to create a platform where conversations, orders, invoices, payments and reviews can be made from any customer-facing channel, and managed within Superchat.
- Superchat makes it as easy and natural for customers to contact small and medium-sized businesses as it is to contact their friends and family
- It pulls in conversations from multiple channels including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Google Business, Telegram, web chat, email and SMS into a universal inbox
- This gives companies unprecedented insight over their customer communications and empowers them to provide the very best experience for consumers thus building loyalty, boosting sales and increasing revenue
- The Series A round was led by Blossom Capital, with participation coming from existing shareholders 468 Capital and the funding will be used to grow the team, expand into new regions and continue building out features and integration
12 January, 2021: Superchat – the omnichannel messaging platform that supercharges how SMEs connect with customers to increase sales and build sustainable relationships – has raised $15.6 million in a Series A round led by Blossom Capital, with participation from 468 Capital. This brings the total raised by Superchat to $18.8 million in just under a year.
Superchat pulls in and streamlines conversations from various channels – WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Google Business, Telegram, web chat, email and SMS – into a single, easy-to-use inbox. It gives companies using Superchat unprecedented insight into the data they have on their customers and how they’re engaging with interested parties. This in turn helps companies boost sales and increase revenue. It allows for greater transparency and efficiency because all team members can see and reply to messages, and, for customers, it means conversations flow as naturally as they would among friends.
Frustrated by their own experiences of trying to contact companies, and seeing first-hand how overwhelming it can be for SMEs to juggle conversations across multiple channels, Superchat’s founders Yilmaz Köknar and Mika Hally and their team built the solution. Since the launch of the inbox feature in April, the platform has processed more than half a million messages from hundreds of customers across 30 industries in Germany alone. These customers have been able to increase sales, boost their Google rankings, get in front of new audiences, offer personalised and tailored advice and improve reply rates all while using Superchat.
Yilmaz Köknar, Superchat founder, said: “Customer service and reputation can make or break a business yet they’re notoriously difficult to get right. Especially for small and medium-sized firms who are only just dipping their toes in the world of digital. This is because today’s customers want and expect to be able to contact businesses wherever, and whenever suits them. Some want to email, others prefer text, many rely on social media or web chats to connect directly. This can prove to be a logistical nightmare for the companies, and results in poor experiences for the customers. No-one wins within the current status quo, but with Superchat, everyone does.”
The funding will be used to continue building out Superchat’s features and integrations with a wide range of existing CRM and workflow tools. It will also help the team grow and see Superchat expand into new countries.
Why Superchat represents the future of customer service Having a wide range of channels from which to connect with different target customers gives small and medium-sized businesses incredible opportunities for reach, not to mention the benefits it provides consumers. Yet it also presents incredible challenges.
Each channel needs to be monitored and managed individually. There can be confusion around which staff member is responsible for replying, or how the communication should be actioned. For teams, the process is fragmented and inefficient, for customers it leads to confusion and a bad experience. All of this results in poor reviews and lost sales, with 78% of customers giving up on a transaction because of a negative experience. Companies across Europe sacrifice a collective €13 billion in revenues a year over bad customer service. For small businesses, this could mean the difference between success and failure.
Superchat’s founders are on a mission to change this; to disrupt the status quo around how small businesses interact with their customers. Within the platform, managers can assign tasks to employees, staff can add internal notes and labels to conversations to improve workflow and make sure customers are getting the very best, joined-up service.
Superchat additionally allows customers to quickly and easily leave reviews, and it offers Webchat and Contact Center tools to empower firms in the early stages of their digital journey to meet the increasing demands of customers, all while ensuring the businesses are fully compliant with privacy and data-sharing regulations including GDPR.
Longer term, Superchat has ambitions to become the operating system for SMEs; to create a platform where conversations, orders, invoices, payments and reviews can be made from any customer-facing channel, and managed within Superchat. With Superchat’s campaign feature, companies are able to send WhatsApp campaigns - similar to an email newsletter- to their customers for sales, marketing and customer service purposes. Superchat also helps its customers grow their WhatsApp newsletter subscriber list, giving companies a unique opportunity to market their offerings via a channel that consumers primarily use for social interactions.
Alex Lim, managing partner at Blossom Capital, said: “Superchat has built a platform that empowers small and medium-sized businesses to leverage the benefits of digital channels and provide the very best service to even the most discerning customers. The founders and the team understand the unique pain points being felt by companies, many of which are still relying on email and phone calls despite the significant shift to digital seen in the wake of the pandemic. The technology has the potential, and the founders have the ambition, to become the leading European player in this space.”