Most companies jump into establishing a business before having much idea about internal operations. There are start-ups founded by brilliant minds and excellent team efforts, achieving great success. But, those are the only companies we tend to know about. In the business world, many new start-ups are coming up every day but dissolving due to a lack of strategic moves.WebEngage is a very important sector for every business to expand and reach out to people. Most of the companies are indeed more interested in making a profit. But, a few understand that customers are the prime key to that. WebEngage is a marketing company that is focused mainly on personalized marketing experience for its customers. Alves Singh and Ankit Utreja founded the company in 2010. And, currently, it is one of the top 25 software companies in India.
About the Founders
Avlesh Singh went to the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad. He graduated in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in Mineral Engineering.
Avlesh started his career with burrp! where he worked as the Principal Engineer and Search Architect. He worked there for more than three years and joined InfoMedia18 Ltd. Avlesh left the company earlier in 2010 and co-founded WebEngage. Currently, he is the Chief Executive Officer of the company.
Before WebEngage, Ankit Utreja has fourteen years of experience in the field of tech stacks. He is extremely skilled at managing the database system. Currently, he is the Chief Technology Officer of WebEngage.
Early Days
When Avlesh and Ankit developed the company, its main focus was on making more engagement between companies and their customers. They emerged as a company providing an on-site survey and a feedback tool. But, once they started engaging customers, Ankit wanted to create more of a high-tech environment for the company. With the assistant of Ankit and the tech team, WebEngage became a full-stack mobile-first marketing automation platform.
Since then they believe in making marketing more personalized. The user should feel genuine engagement with the company and become more comfortable. WebEngage thus came up as an opportunity for digital companies to improve user engagement.
Growth and Success
WebEngage has been listed in the Winter 2020 Grid Report for Marketing Automation & Push Notification and the High Performer Category. The tool of WebEngage is also very easy to set up which attracts more customers around the globe. Due to this reason, WebEngage received an Implementation Index of 7.96 out of 10. This rate is higher than companies like Oracle and Adobe.
In 2018, the company helped more than 300 digital enterprises to make their user engagement better. Currently, the company is trying its best to help all the B2C companies make more annual revenue. Instead of landing new customers, WebEngage lets the companies reconnect with the existing customers and make a better relationship.
Investors
The major investors of the company are IndiaQuotient, Blume Ventures, Social Capital, Capital Group, and Indian Angel Fund. And, the recent investors are Social Capital and BlackSoil. The Angel round of WebEngage took place in October 2011 and the company raised $100,000. The next funding round took place in August 2012 where they raised $500,000 followed by $1.3 million in 2016. Till now, WebEngage has raised a total amount of $2.1 million from six funding rounds.
Application of AI and ML
Since WebEngage is an initiative to improve user engagement, the application of AI and ML is quite mandatory. The application of AI is needed here mainly to categorize the requirements of the customers based on business requirements, user action, demographic data, etc. It also checks the suitability of the content across different types of user groups.
Accusations
The company was making remarkable success. But, in 2017 one of the former female colleagues of the company accused Avlesh Singh of sexual assault. It spread all over social media like a wildfire. The investigation continued for a long time and they concluded about the relationship is consensual. But, after she came up with the same accusation once again, investigation presumed.
Later, all the charges were removed from him. But, the news affected the growth of the company to some point. Though, the action didn’t lead to something bigger like striking his name off the company. But, the company still suffered some loss.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more