Wasabi Raises Funds For Building Communication And Growth Platform For MSMEs

Wasabi (Truegrit Technologies), a Bengaluru-based tech startup, has raised $1.8 Mn in a seed round led by Ankur Capital. The funds raised will be utilised to build a strong engineering team, develop the startups’ product offering and create early customer traction. 

The round also saw participation from Binny Bansal backed 021 Capital and Sparrow Capital. Other notable angel investors like Ankit Bhati (Ola), Mekin Maheshwari (Udhyam Learning), Lalit Keshre (Groww), Revant Bhate (Mosaic Wellness), Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn),  and Ashish Goel (Urban Ladder) also partook in this round of funding. 

Founded in January 2021 by Pradeep Dodle and Nikhil Goenka, Wasabi is building easy-to-use communications and growth platforms for small and medium businesses in India to manage customer relationships better and grow their business. The startup aims to ease the conversion of conversations to sales on any channel and use of simple marketing tools to retain loyal customers and attract new users. 

“With an increasing number of customers going digital and intense competition from large ecommerce platforms, many small businesses are facing an existential threat. We believe that they can thrive only by going digital while continuing to build closer relationships with their customers and providing them with personalised service,” said Pradeep Dodle, cofounder, Wasabi.

According to industry estimates, there are more than 6.3 Cr registered small and medium businesses in India and many millions of more home-based businesses. While consumers are increasingly going digital, these businesses are lagging in embracing new technologies that could help them become more data-driven while also catalysing a more contextual real-time engagement with their customers. The team believes the next 3-5 years will be transformational, where millions of these small businesses will go digital to survive and thrive. 

Nikhil Goenka, cofounder, Wasabi, added, “The biggest moat for small businesses is their relationship and proximity to customers. While they do this exceptionally well offline, they are struggling to extend the same experience digitally. They juggle multiple apps and find it complex to manage. We want to simplify this, help them build stronger customer relationships, and grow their business.” Wasabi is reimagining ‘HubSpot’ — the US-headquartered inbound CRM solution provider that helps companies integrate their business — for small businesses in India.