WebEngage claims to cross 4K users, launches 'Notifications' for customer interaction in real time

WebEngage, run by Mumbai-based Webklipper Technologies Pvt Ltd and providing customer feedback and survey tools for online companies via a SaaS-based model, has added a new service to its product suite. The new service called Notifications enables real-time interaction with customers and is especially useful for e-commerce companies.

WebEngage went live in October 2011, offering its flagship service of customer feedback and then immediately added contextual surveys to its services. The latest addition to the portfolio will enable companies to engage with their customers in real time. "With this tool, e-commerce companies can generate new offers and coupons in real time without changing the code on their websites," said Avlesh Singh, co-founder and CEO of WebEngage.

For instance, if a customer is sitting in the 'cart' for the last 60 seconds, the e-shop can immediately generate a discount coupon and he/she will be informed in real time. This will help increase the conversion rates.

In addition, WebEngage has unveiled its new-look portal and claims to have over 4,000 customers as of now, a small chunk of which are paid customers. When we last spoke to the company in April this year, it had around 1,500 customers. Therefore, it has added roughly 2,500 clients in the past 7 months.

"The going is great for WebEngage and we are pretty excited to have added so many customers to our portfolio," said Singh. Its key customers included companies like MakeMyTrip, Avaya, Indiatimes, Reliance General Insurance, JustEat and Contify, among others. Interestingly, around 75 percent of its customers come from outside India and the company is, therefore, looking at expanding geographically.

"We already are a global company, but we still don't have a physical presence abroad. So, whenever the next funding happens, it will be utilised for geographical expansion," said Singh.

The company raised an angel round of funding from Indian Angel Network, led by Google India chief Rajan Anandan in his personal capacity. Other investors included names like Sunil Kalra, Sadeesh Raghavan, Ashim Mehra, Nitin Singhal, Pradeep Gupta and Harish Mehta. The angel funding happened in June 2011 while the company raised another Rs 2.8 crore ($0.5 million) in seed funding from the GTI Capital Group in June this year. Although the company claims to have a lot of capital left, it can be looking at another round soon.

Overall, Singh is very positive about the whole SaaS model and says that the trend is definitely picking up in India. But in the Indian context, the majority of clients are either e-commerce or travel companies but internationally, a host of other sectors are also using the services of WebEngage. It may, therefore, take some time before the concept gains popularity with other sectors. Content companies, for instance, can also benefit from such services, he added.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)