New Delhi-based online platform for consumers to business interactions Akosha, on Tuesday announced that it has raised Rs 100 crore in Series B round of funding from Sequoia Capital.
The fund raised in the fresh round will be utilised to strengthen mobile technology and increase the technology team size. According to the company, it will hire over 200 software engineers and product managers to build out the platform.
Commenting on the expansion plans Ankur Singla, Chief Executive Officer, Akosha said, “We started four years ago to help consumers with post purchase issues. With the growth of mobile, we aim at building a messaging platform for all interactions between consumers and businesses including discovery, buying, appointments and customer service. We hope to be doing 100,000 customer interactions/day within 3 months. But I think we’re just getting started. We are confident that in the near future, Akosha chat will be a competitive customer service differentiator for businesses”.
Akosha handles over 30,000 consumer inquiries every day over the web, telephone and its Android chat app. The company monetizes these inquiries by providing Akosha’s enterprise software OneDirect to brands which help them to have a fast and personalized interactions with their consumers.
The company recently launched its mobile app on android platform. Over the last year, the company has grown its employee base from 180 to over 300 and also opened a technology and product office in Bangalore. It expects to add 400-500 people to its team this year.
In 2014, Coraza Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates Akosha.com has raised around $5.2 million from Sequoia Capital. It has also raised $200,000 as seed investment in 2011 from The Morpheus, a start-up accelerator based out of Bengaluru and Sequoia.
“We have always believed in the thesis that consumers need a better way to interact with businesses. We are inspired by Ankur’s vision for becoming a single destination on the smartphone for users to interact with hundreds of businesses and online services. We are delighted to lead our third round of investment in Akosha, starting with a $200,000 seed investment in 2011,” said Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors.
