A Tokyo-based startup that lets businesses communicate with their customers via its chat application has secured over 30 million dollars in equity and debt. The company said it raised $41.4 million in the latest round.
The Series E equity funding was led by JIC Venture Growth Investments, with participation from Z Venture Capital. The debt financing was joined by two other banks.
Conversational commerce is a term that was created by Chris Messina, a former employee of Uber. The coronaviruses have made messaging apps the medium for personal, business or commerce to interact with each other.
The global market of chat commerce is expected to increase to $290 billion by 2025, up from $41 billion in 2021, representing a 590% rise over the next four years. The research shows that China, Japan and South Korea will account for more than 90 percent of chat commerce spending by the year 2025.
More than 400 enterprises, including Toyota dealerships and Shiseido, are served by Zeals.
The image is titled "Zeals."
The business has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 139% in revenue since the beginning of the year, but the CFO did not provide a baseline for that growth. The average conversion ratio is 9.6%, meaning that roughly 1 out of 10 customers use the Zeals chatbot service.
The founder and CEO of the startup stated that the startup has communication designers using its internal no-code bot builder to personalize its service for users. Other competitors offer mainly customer support services, while Zeals focuses on promotions to increase revenue.
New product development, go-to-market channels and support for overseas expansion are some of the things that will be helped by the latest round. The company had businesses in Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines before the COVID epidemic, but they have stopped. A number of clients are in the process of re-entering overseas in Asia and the U.S.
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