Marketing automation startup Betaout raises $500K in seed funding

Betaout Inc, which operates a customer intelligence and marketing automation platform for e-commerce businesses, has raised $500,000 (Rs 3.2 crore) in seed funding from People Group founder Anupam Mittal, Ibibo Group founder Ashish Kashyap, Redbus co-founder Phanindra Sama and other investors from India and the US.

Other investors who put money in this round are: Amit Ranjan (co-founder, Slideshare), Abhishek Rungta (founder, Indusnet), Ankur Warikoo (CEO, Groupon India), Ashish Tulsian (founder & CEO, Posist), Badri Sanjeevi (CEO, Mauj Mobile), Kunal Bahl (CEO & co-founder, Snapdeal), Girish Mathrubootham (CEO & founder, Freshdesk), Pallav Nadhani (founder & CEO, Fusioncharts), Rohit Bansal (COO & co-founder, Snapdeal), Sam Yagan (CEO, Match Group) via Corazon Capital, Shan Krishnasamy (co-founder & CTO, Freshdesk), Sunil Goyal via Yournest, Vaibhav Domkundwar (founder, Better Inc), Vaibhav Kakkar (founder, Rankwatch), and Vijay Shekhar Sharma (founder and CEO, Paytm).

"We are excited to have the support of some of the most experienced investors and industry pioneers. This funding will allow us to invest more in technology and ramp up our sales effort," said Ankit Maheshwari, CEO and co-founder of Noida and Chicago-based Betaout.

Betaout was founded by serial entrepreneurs Maheshwari, Raghubir Thakur, Arjun Maheshwari and Nandini Rathi.

Maheshwari was earlier founder of Times Internet-backed Instamedia, a Shimla-based content network, which was sold by the investors to a Dubai-based media group in June 2012. Subsequently, Maheshwari started Betaout, as a SaaS platform aimed at building tools and software for publishers and digital agencies. Betaout's first product was ContentCloud, an editorial project management software application that enables users to plug in to their chosen content management system (CMS).

Betaout's customer intelligence and marketing platform, a new business line, was launched in April 2015. Ever since, the company claims, it has witnessed double-digit monthly revenue growth and has top e-commerce companies as clients.

The platform builds user intelligence database and provides  tools to engage with users through email, on-site engagement and live-chat, SMS and other channels. It enables online businesses to increase conversions and personalise user engagement using real-time user persona and intent data.

Betaout is currently being accelerated at TechStars Chicago 2015 programme, which is run by mentorship-driven startup accelerator TechStars. Betaout is only the second Indian company to be selected by TechStars, first being MartMobi which was acquired by Snapdeal recently.