Social commerce the method of shopping for and promoting services or products instantly by way of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok is changing into essentially the most pure approach for customers to make purchases since individuals use social media and messaging apps virtually daily.
SleekFlow, an omnichannel social commerce platform that helps companies construct buyer movement automation from messaging and dwell video to transactions, has closed $8 million Series A funding led by Tiger Global Management. Transcend Capital and AEF Greater Bay Area Fund, managed by Gobi Partners GBA, additionally participated in the spherical.
Consumers now spend 80 % of their time on social platforms, and it’s already a behavior to find and purchase merchandise instantly from right here, mentioned founder and CEO of SleekFlow Henson Tsai. SleekFlow goals to drive this e-commerce revolution by being the highest social commerce unified hub merging conversations, product catalogs, cost options, and order administration into one for companies.
Picture Credits: SleekFlow
Founded in 2019, SleekFlow now serves greater than 5,000 companies throughout the globe, together with NARS Cosmetics, Bossini, Lalamove Hong Kong and PSB Academy. The firm claims that it noticed roughly 500% income progress after its latest pre-Series A funding backed by Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (AHKEF) in May 2021. (SleekFlow didn’t present its baseline for that progress.)
The Hong Kong-headquartered startup will use the contemporary capital for its market penetration into Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore and Malaysia, in addition to the UK and different international locations in Europe. In addition, the newest funding will allow SleekFlow to reinforce its product growth with fintech and knowledge analytics capabilities, one-click checkouts by way of social media platforms, and straightforward in-chat cost integrations for on-line to offline (O2O) and e-commerce manufacturers seamless workflow.
The startup has lately launched a fintech product social-to-payment characteristic to offer a complete answer for each e-commerce and brick-and-mortar companies. In Southeast Asia alone, about 90% of digital merchants use digital payments for profitability and survival, the corporate says, including that the chat-to-checkout device is important in driving gross sales and conversions from numerous digital gross sales channels. SleekFlow additionally launched a brand new gross sales and analytics and customer support efficiency monitoring that helps customers observe and analyze shopper profiles and behaviors for personalised communications after its partnership with Shopify final November.
The world social commerce market is projected to rise to $6.2 trillion by 2030.
According to the corporate, one in 5 {dollars} spent on retail in Southeast Asia is transacted by way of social media, and extra customers are looking to businesses offering convenient communications. SleekFlow integrates a number of messaging channels equivalent to Official WhatsApp Business API, Facebook Messenger, Instagram chat, SMS and Telegram to handle the challenges of managing a number of messaging and social media platforms.
Despite the financial downturn, the social commerce market goes stronger than ever, reaching $474 billion in 2021,” Chibo Tang, managing associate of Gobi Partners GBA mentioned in an announcement. “Eight in 10 US companies anticipate elevated gross sales by way of social media throughout the subsequent three years. SleekFlows modern options will assist these world commerce companies meet the evolving wants of consumers who’re turning to social channels to buy greater than ever earlier than.
Slack now has a workforce of 60 members in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and the UK
