企业通讯工具Eko获570万美元A轮融资，近期欲进军中国市场当Slack被人们广泛关注时，依然有很多人在使用着其他企业通讯工具。
Eko，这众多工具中的一款，在今天透露他们已获得570万美元的A轮融资，由中国的戈壁投资（Gobi Partners）领投。融资将用于新用户的拓展。
在16个月前Eko完成了一轮由500 Startups领投的种子轮融资。之前的投资者在A轮融资中再次参投。
Eko的创始人兼CEO Korawad Chearavanont说道：“Slack注重的是那些雇员人数在50以下的公司，我们针对的却是更大型的公司。带给我们回报最大的一个客户拥有近15万名雇员。这类公司和小型企业解决问题的方式是不一样的，而我们就致力于解决这类难题。”尽管Eko的目标客户是大型公司，它的App还是本着“移动优先”的原则，并且有着和即时通讯应用WhatsApp相似的界面设计。
Eko的下一个目标是中国市场。Korawad声称他们在中国已经引起了一些关注。的确，Eko的很大部分利润来源于中国。受此激励，他们计划在接下来的几个月里在北京开设分部。
Korawad说，如果进军中国市场，他们预备和诸如政府一类的机构进行合作。但是具体的合作对象和合作方式还未公布。中国的创业公司很多也有自己的职场聊天工具，脉脉是使用最广的一个。脉脉在去年曾获得2000万美元的B轮融资。
Korawad认为他们取胜脉脉的法宝就是——同大型公司进行紧密合作。“我们将会以一种非传统且盛大的方式在中国亮相。我们的首要任务是发展平台，其次才是推广品牌。”
不论Eko会选择怎样的进军方式，至少它已经有了一个紧密的中国盟友——戈壁投资。
Workplace chat app Eko gets $5.7M series A funding to make teams productive, quit Slacking
While Slack gets all the headlines, most people around the world are using one of dozens of other workplace messaging apps. One of those apps, Eko, today revealed that it has secured US$5.7 million in series A funding to help it pick up new users. The investment in the Thai-American startup was led by China-based Gobi Partners.
It comes 16 months after the Eko team nabbed seed funding led by 500 Startups. Earlier backers also contributed to the series A round.
Teen entrepreneur
“Whereas Slack is very strong for companies with under 50 employees, our product is not as strong for that segment,” says Korawad Chearavanont, the 20-year-old founder and CEO of Eko. “Our product only begins to truly add value to bigger companies. Our biggest revenue-generating customer has approximately 150,000 employees, for example.”
“They have a very different set of problems from small businesses, and we work to resolve those features,” he adds.
Even though Eko is going for larger firms, the app has the mobile-first mentality and the WhatsApp-esque interface of the new wave of business chat apps that are toppling the old dinosaurs like Yammer – apps like Slack, HipChat, Flowdock, Convo, Cotap, Pie, and Fleep.
Korawad says Eko works a bit differently from some of its rivals by having a “high touch” relationship with some corporate clients that extends to them getting custom versions of the Eko app – not the app available for download on Google Play or Apple’s App Store. “I can’t yet disclose certain customers, due to the stage of launch, but I can say a few top 10 ASEAN banks are paying customers and they have a very specific set of security and regulation needs which we can fulfill, whereas Slack cannot,” he explains.
The startup is keeping the number of active users under its hat.
Korawad is the son of billionaire telco tycoon Suphachai Chearavanont, the president and CEO of True – and he’s the grandson of Dhanin Chearavanont, the wealthiest man in Southeast Asia with a net worth of over US$14 billion. Eko was started up from Korawad’s New Jersey boarding school dorm room when he was 17. The main product office remains in New York, and the startup has opened up a business office in Bangkok.
Charging into China
The next step for the Eko team is China, where Korawad claims the app already has some traction. Indeed, most of Eko’s revenue is generated in China. Inspired by that, the startup plans to open an office in Beijing within the next few months.
He says the app has grown “organically through word of mouth from execs in current clients” in China. It’s also taking a tailor-made approach for some major clients in the country.
“Our full launch in China was not intended or planned until much later. Our traction is different from the traditional early traction many startups may get. In China, we work with entities associated with the government,” Korawad says, but further details on who or how are kept under wraps.
Chinese startups are working on enterprise chat apps of their own – most noticeably Maimai, which this time last year got US$20 million in series B funding.
Korawad sees Eko standing out from Maimai just as it does from Slack – by working closely with some of the huge companies that use it. And he hints at more to come, propelled by this growth in China. “We will enter [China] in an unconventional and big way, which, when we do, you may not recognize us. Our priority is to grow our platform – growing our brand is secondary. Our long term vision is not to be an enterprise messaging app, but rather to be a mobile enterprise platform.”
Whatever form that takes, the startup has a China ally in its newest investor.
Source:Techinasia
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