Eko, a mobile-first collaboration and communications platform for businesses, has raised USD20 million in a Series B financing round led by SMDV, with participation from AirAsia’s digital investment arm, RedBeat Ventures, Gobi Partners, East Ventures and existing shareholders.
The Bangkok, and now London-based, company has seen revenues more than triple in the past year with over half a million recurring paid users across sectors including retail, hospitality, banking, and other service-based industries. This round will provide Eko with funds to further accelerate its expansion in Europe and North America.
It also today announces a significant European expansion, with new offices opened in Chancery Lane in London, Weteringschans in Amsterdam and in Berlin.
Eko’s platform, which is currently used by companies with a combined valuation of over USD60 billion, has been built to solve a growing problem for businesses that rely on mobile-first, distributed non-desk based workforces. These companies have increasingly seen their employees create informal communication chat groups and processes using existing consumer messaging applications, which in turn creates security, confidentiality and GDPR issues.
Eko’s ‘All-In-One’ solution solves this problem by providing a secure platform for employees and management to communicate and collaborate in real time. It provides users with a host of easy-to-use functionality, including communications, business process management (workflows), project management and knowledge management. It is also highly flexible, providing numerous APIs that allow for the integration of legacy systems and bots.
After deploying Eko’s products, customers have experienced benefits such as accelerated digitisation of workflows and processes, higher employee engagement, significant communication efficiency and across-the-board productivity gains.
Ashley Ely, General Manager at Leman Locke, says: “Mobile technologies and apps have enabled us to do so many things from the comfort of our smartphones. Eko has revolutionised the way our employees communicate and collaborate across all departments. It is a fantastic application that is an integral part of our operations.”
Eko is designed to closely resemble existing consumer chat applications, ensuring that users are able to easily understand and use the technology. Its cost-effective pricing structure ensures it’s a viable solution for companies looking to use the tool across thousands of employees.
Korawad Chearavanont, Eko’s CEO & Founder, says: “To date, digital communication and productivity platforms have focused on appealing to a largely desk-based, highly tech-savvy workforce, who are confident using an array of digital tools. This has left a large portion of the UK’s workforce without a communication tool fit for purpose and teams have often had to rely on consumer messaging platforms to fill the gap, creating significant inefficiencies as well as a myriad of security issues. Eko solves these problems whilst adding significant value to organisations looking to use mobile technology to supercharge their productivity. We have seen enormous demand from companies across sectors and this fundraiser will help us roll out Eko to more and more customers across Europe and the US.”
Roderick Purwana, the Managing Partner at SMDV, says: “Eko’s communication and collaboration features fit the increasing mobility of corporate employees today.”
