In 2017, Reply.io set out to solve a simple problem: businesses were unable to track customers who had switched to messaging apps. Today, Respond, with its customer conversation management software, has become one of Malaysia’s technology success stories.
The Kuala Lumpur-headquartered startup raised a $62.5 million Series B round led by Camber Partners, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst and existing investors. He raised for the last time a $7 million Series A in 2022. The company reached $35 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), representing 169% year-over-year growth, with a 30% profit margin, she told TechCrunch.
Co-founder and CEO Gerardo Salandra, who worked at IBM and Google before joining Runtastica fitness tracking app sold to Adidas in 2015, founded Respond in Hong Kong in 2017 alongside Hassan Ahmed (CTO) and Laroslav Kudritskiy (COO). The team moved the business to Malaysia two years later.
The platform helps mid-to-large B2C businesses generate revenue through customer conversations across multiple messaging channels, including WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Messenger, Line, Telegram, WeChat, voice calls and web chat. It also uses AI agents to automatically process high volumes of customer inquiries, qualify leads, and close sales without human intervention.
Salandra described its main clients as “high consideration” businesses, where customers need to talk to someone before buying, such as healthcare, automotive, retail, education and travel. “You don’t go to a website and put in your credit card and buy a car; you talk to someone, you ask a lot of questions,” he said. Its sweet spot is companies with 200 to 10,000 employees.
The rise of AI has raised an obvious question for platforms like Respond: Can tools like ChatGPT simply replace what they’ve built?
Salandra believes her position is strong enough to stop such encroachment, should it occur. The company currently processes 2 billion messages per quarter.
“If I just look at the numbers, every day that AI becomes more important, we grow faster,” he told TechCrunch. “We’re not seeing what the SaaS public markets are seeing.”
Part of it depends on price, he said. Unlike competing enterprise software that charges per seat, Respond charges based on customer conversation volume, meaning it doesn’t matter whether a human or AI responds. “When fewer humans use your product, they make less money,” he said. “But we don’t charge like that.”
Historical platforms, particularly those dominant in North America and Europe, were built around email and phone calls. “The platforms that are out there have moved toward messaging second. They’re very email-focused, they’re very call-focused, but when it comes to messaging, it’s an afterthought,” Salandra said.
This volume of message data creates a feedback loop, according to the CEO. More messages means better AI. Better AI attracts more customers. More customers generate more messages. “It’s what we call the data flywheel,” Salandra said. He added that the lead is also important for any new AI company. “Because we started so long ago and have such a strong foundation, we can provide better AI compared to someone who is just entering the messaging space.”
With the new capital, Salandra said the company plans to continue hiring, organic growth and acquisitions. The CEO has two types of purchasing targets in mind: integrated technology that fits into its existing ecosystem and established teams with a strong customer base in strategic markets like Europe and North America. “Imagine how many months I can save if I find the right company that maybe already has the customers and the team,” he said. “I can gain six months to a year from an acquisition.” He confirmed that the company was already in talks with a few potential targets.
The geographic push makes strategic sense. Respond currently generates around 30% of its revenue in APAC, 30% in Latin America and 20% in the Middle East and Africa, leaving North America and Western Europe at just 20%. But Salandra says these regions are now growing the fastest. “They took longer to make the change, but now they’re moving very quickly to messaging channels,” he said, adding that he expects the two regions to become the company’s largest segment within two to three years.
Despite the new injection of capital, Salandra remains cautious about the future of events. “We don’t want to be a growth-at-all-costs company,” he said. “Even with this money, we’re going to be very disciplined.” But Salandra has bigger plans in mind. “My favorite result? » he said. “Ring the Nasdaq bell.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
