Office assistant app Skedool raises seed funding from Kludein, others

Skedool.it, a B2B startup that operates an artificial intelligence-based office assistance app, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from a clutch of investors led by Kludein LLC.

RedBus founder Phanindra Sama, former country head of Morgan Stanley India Narayan Ramachandran, and Pranav Pai, investing on behalf of former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai, also participated in the funding round.

Skedool.it was founded in 2015 by IIT-Madras alumni Deepti Yenireddy and Naveen Varma. The company, currently based out of US and India, plans to use the capital for development, growth in operations, and talent acquisition.

Skedool.it allows business executives, sales and recruiting professionals to automate repetitive everyday tasks. It is currently available for Gmail and Outlook365 and integrates with leading CRM, marketing and recruiting tools.

"Business professionals spend an inordinate amount of time on low value scheduling activities. We developed Skedool's assistant as a blend of artificial and human intelligence that quickly and accurately handles all your B2B scheduling and calendar management needs for less than 5 per cent of the cost of a full-time executive assistant," said Yenireddy. The startup claims to help increase the conversion rate from initial outreach to getting a meeting scheduled by 40 per cent.

In the virtual assistance space, there have been chat-based players such as Goodservice and Helpchat which have received investment. In December last year,Joe Hukum, an app-based provider of concierge services, has raised an undisclosed sum in seed funding from TracxnLabs, Citrus Payments' Jitendra Gupta and 1mg.com's Prashant Tandon.