【印度】Avaamo：想解决“企业使用WhatsApp不够安全”这个问题
在成为创业者之前，Ram Menon和SriramChakravarthy都供职于TIBCO，这是一家企业通信软件企业。在TIBCO工作的那段时间里，他们开发了一个名叫TIbbr的企业通信应用，这个应用成为了Yammer和Chatter的主要竞争对手。这段经验让他们了解到了人们在工作中对于通信应用的需求。目前工作通信软件最大的问题之一，就是大多数这类软件都是基于桌面型电脑所开发的。当人们希望在移动设备上使用这些软件的时候，总是会陷入许多麻烦。在过去的五年里，这两位创业者一直在想办法解决这个问题，于是他们成立了Avaamo这家企业。
Chakravarthy在接受采访的时候表示：“在看到消费通讯应用的趋势之后，我们意识到移动应用的最大价值在于其简洁性。”站在普通用户的角度来看，Chakravarthy和Menon最大的贡献，就是让应用下载变得极其快速，而且还大大降低了用户的使用学习成本，缩短了用户之间在进行沟通的时候所需要的时间。而站在企业的角度来看，这个产品最大的优势则在于其安全性和数据的隐秘性。
Chakravarthy以一家总部位于班加罗尔的企业举了个例子。这家企业在于地产经纪公司沟通的时候，一直在使用WhatsApp这个应用的群组聊天功能。然而这个群组并非安全群组，也不会合适群组成员的真实身份。加入群组内的某一个人某一天离职，而群组管理人忘记将其移除群组，那么公司的许多私密信息就很有可能泄露出去，从而对企业的数据安全造成威胁。
Chakravarthy和Menon决定彻底解决这个问题，于是他们在2014年成立了Avaamo。这家在印度和硅谷都有办公司的初创企业为企业提供了一种安全并且便于监管的通信应用。这个应用分为免费版和付费版，企业可以根据自己的需求来选择。
免费版的Avaamo与WhatsApp非常类似，用户可以添加群组成员，并且发送无限量的消息。而付费版则提供了数据保护功能，它可以自动移除已离职成员，群组管理员也可以手动管理成员。为了方便管理，企业管理者还可以安装Avaamo的网页版应用，并且使用其中的控制面板来更加快速的管理聊天组成员。付费版的价格由企业的员工数量所决定。
Chakravarthy表示：“这个应用有着非常方便的控制机制，企业可以随时对聊天成员进行管理，避免数据出现泄漏。”
WhatsApp isn’t safe enough for business messaging; Avaamo fills the gap
Before turning entrepreneurs, Ram Menon and Sriram Chakravarthy worked for TIBCO, an enterprise communication software company. During their stint there, they built a product called Tibbr, an enterprise communication app that competed with Yammer and Chatter. This gave them a first-hand experience in understanding how people use communication apps in their professional lives. A clear drawback was that these apps were primarily desktop based. The apps did not have the elements of ease that people look for while communicating on mobile. This became more apparent as Menon and Chakravarthy noticed the big shift to mobile in the last five years. That inspired the duo to co-found Avaamo.
“After seeing the trends in consumer messaging apps, we realized that there was an inherent value proposition in the simplicity of mobile apps,” Chakravarthy tellsTech in Asia. The main points that Chakravarthy and Menon worked on, from the consumer point of view, were how quickly the app could be downloaded, how easily it could be maneuvered, and how to ensure minimum response time during communication. From an enterprise point of view, the main elements were security and data privacy.
Chakravarthy cites the example of a real estate company in Bangalore which uses WhatsApp to communicate with the real estate agents through groups. These are not secure groups in terms of assessing the identity of the members. In the case where a member has left the company, an admin might not necessarily have remembered to remove him from the group. A lot of private and confidential information is exchanged in these groups and without centralized monitoring of members, the company might be compromising on its security and data privacy.
Eureka
Menon and Chakravarthy decided to tackle these challenges and incorporated Avaamo in 2014. The India-Silicon Valley based startup, provides enterprises a secure and an easily supervisable communication app. The app has both free as well as paid versions. The free one works like Whatsapp and the user can add members and send unlimited messages. The paid version provides data compliance, automated user on & off boarding, broadcast to company users, support and administrator control. An enterprise administrator can install the Avaamo web app and control messaging and communication through a dashboard.
The pricing for the premium app is for enterprises and varies with the size of the enterprise and number of employees
AN administrator can create a list of members, monitor the daily user activity on the app, and manage the groups. The groups can be predefined for departments and can also be created by employees according to their convenience. An employee can download the free version and keep in touch with the company for their daily tasks. The administrator can decide the amount of time to keep the data before it gets deleted automatically.
“The app has fine-grained controls that will ensure that only the right people join,” says Chakravarthy.
For the mobile employees
There are several applications available to companies for enterprise communication in India. Skype for Business, Slack, and Flowdock, among many others, address the problem of being in touch with employees across all offices and branches a company might have. When asked about the well-rooted competition, Chakravarthy said, “These apps are great, but for the desk-bound employees. But for example, in an insurance company, if the manager wants to get in touch with an agent riding a moped on a hill in Shillong, he can’t reach him with Slack, because the agent is on WhatsApp.” According to Chakravarthy, people using their mobile phones 70 percent of the day lack an enterprise grade communication system that is easy to use. “Avaamo bridges this gap in an under-served market,” he claims.
Avaamo has 7,000 companies on board out of which, 3,000 are Indian companies – mostly insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and banks. “We focus on companies that have more employees on their mobile phones and provide a secure and easy communication platform on cheap Android phones,” adds Chakravarthy.
Messaging 3.0
“SMS was 1.0; Whatsapp, WeChat,and Line were 2.0; and we would like to think of ourselves as 3.0,” says Chakravarthy.
Recently, Avaamo introduced a ‘Smart Card’ as the latest addition to their app. Smart Cards are broadcast cards that allow sending out aggregated information to the members of a group on the app.
For example, the sales growth in a certain period of time can be sent out in the form of a card to employees. It can also be sent out as surveys for feedback or as a letter from the CEO. The employees can read it, reply, or ask for clarifications. “The read rates on HR surveys and letters are more than often under 10 percent and this feature will help them know how many employees are looking at the information on the card and responding. They can then take steps to improve the engagement rate,” says Chakravarthy.
The app also makes it possible to check-in so that the employee can be located on the map. Take an ATM servicing company, for example. It is necessary to know where their employees are so that they can promptly deal with any ATM-related issues by assigning the task to an employee in the vicinity of the ATM.
Chakravarthy believes that Avaamo is taking everyday business processes and making them mobile-ready.
The big hurdles before Avaamo in the way of further expansion in India as well as rest of Asia, in terms of communicating their product, is the bandwidth and battery. In India, people are concerned about keeping their phone alive and using their data cost-consciously. Also, the 3G infrastructure of India is less reliable compared to the other countries. Avaamo sees this as its main challenge.
The startup believes in the concept of information velocity. This concept deals with the speed at which messages are sent and ensures a short response time during conversations. To tackle fluctuating internet connection, Avaamo introduced its “fire and forget” feature, which ensures that the message that has been sent from a phone reaches the recipient irrespective of whether the sender has stable data or not.
Avaamo is a team of 40 based in both India and Silicon Valley. Menon is CEO and Chakravarthy is CTO at the startup. Even though the business has a global focus, Avaamo is currently seeing an unexpected yet welcome increase in customer traction in India. It has now set up a sales team focusing on increasing its customer base here.
In October of last year, the startup raised US$6.3 million in seed funding from WI Harper group, with participation from Streamlined Ventures, Rembrandt Ventures, Ovo Fund and Eleven Two Capital.
来源：Tech in Asia
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2015年07月23日
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澳大利亚线上顾问平台Expert360获得310万A轮融资
导语：这笔融资将会用于扩大其顾问支持团队，并且增加更多企业级服务。HRTechChina也报道过专注中小企业咨询的 “收费版知乎”的“答赏”，“答赏”是通过垂直领域的专业问答涉足在线咨询，为企业经营者提供解决问题方案的，致力打造最有价值的商业分享和人脉社区。国外方面，连接企业家和高级顾问和行业专家的Clarity也与之相类似。
澳大利亚Expert360是一家提供高端顾问服务的平台，近日该公司获得了410万澳元（约合310万美元）的A轮融资，领投方是Frontier Ventures风投公司。
这笔融资将会用于扩大其顾问支持团队，在研究、数据、以及其他知识产品方面提供服务。此外据Expert360联合创始人兼首席运营官Emily Yue透露，该融资还会用于Expert360增加更多企业级服务，一些从大企业退休的高管将会加入到Expert360的顾问人才团队，客户还能获得专属项目经理的支持。
据了解，目前全球顾问行业的市值已经达到了3500亿美元。
参与本轮投资的还有澳大利亚本土科技基金Rampersand，一批机构投资人，现有股东，和高净值投资人（比如Macquarie银行前任总经理Allan Moss AO）。本轮投资之后，Frontier Ventures风投创始人Dmitry Alimov将会加入到Expert360公司董事会。
Alimov说道，“线上顾问服务具有颠覆全球顾问行业的潜力，而Expert360则是此领域里的佼佼者。他们突破了传统的咨询顾问方法，利用科技的力量，全球互联，以及个体性专长，为客户提供优秀的解决方案。Expert360团队给我们留下了深刻印象，他们的执行力非常快，产品质量和发展轨迹也很不错。我们非常高兴能够重新回到线上顾问服务行业。我们的目标，就是帮助该公司的联合创始人和他们的团队，把这项事业推向新的。”
Expert360公司成立于2013年，他们在全世界拥有超过4500名专业顾问，企业客户可以轻松地与旗下顾问联系，获得帮助。根据该公司官方信息，目前Expert360总部设在悉尼，在澳大利亚和东南亚拥有15名全职员工。
Bridget Loudon是该公司首席执行官兼联合创始人，她说道，“我们的公司愿景非常简单，就是希望利用科技的力量，帮助客户或是客户的项目得到优质的顾问服务，让他们能够随时随地的获得顾问价值。我们非常高兴，因为有一批非常棒的投资人帮助我们将Expert360推上一个新台阶。我们的领投方，Frontier Ventures风投，在全球市场有着丰富且有价值的专业经验，我们非常期待与他们合作。”
Frontier Ventures是一家专门在全球新兴市场从事互联网领域投资的风投公司，他们主要关注东南亚和俄罗斯的消费互联网服务。该风投的投资组合包括亚洲餐厅预订平台Chope，俄罗斯线上视频公司ivi.ru，以及俄罗斯和独联体的线上企业服务平台profi.ru。本次对Expert360的投资，是他们第十笔线上服务平台类投资，也是他们在亚太地区的第二笔投资。
Frontier Ventures leads US$3.1M Series A round in Australia’s Expert360
Frontier Ventures has led an oversubscribed AU$4.1 million (US$3.1 million) round raised by Australian consulting marketplace Expert360.
The newly raised capital will see the company expand its support for consultants through access to research, data and other IP. The money will also be used to expand its enterprise services offerings so that executives in larger organisations can get instant access to a pool of consulting talent and support from a dedicated project manager, shared Expert360’s Co-founder and COO Emily Yue.
The global consulting industry is worth US$350 billion.
Co-investors in the round include Australian technology fund rampersand, institutional investors, existing shareholders, and high net worth individuals such as former Macquarie Bank MD Allan Moss AO.
Frontier Ventures Founder Dmitry Alimov will join the company’s Board of Directors.
Alimov said, “Expert360 is a leading marketplace for online consulting services with potential to disrupt a massive global industry. It breaks apart traditional consulting methodology by using the power of technology, global connectivity and individual expertise to provide superior client solutions. We are very impressed by the company’s team, its speed of execution, product quality and outstanding growth trajectory. We know online service marketplaces and we’re excited to back this one. Our goal is to help Bridget, Emily (Co-founders) and the Expert360 team take this business to a new level.”
Launched in 2013, Expert360 connects consultants with companies and has more than 4,500 independent consultants available from around the world. From an initial small team in Sydney, it now has 15 full-time employees across Australia and Southeast Asia, said an official release.
Bridget Loudon, CEO and Co-founder of Expert360 said, “Our vision is simple: it’s about harnessing technology to connect clients and their projects with great consultants, anywhere, anytime and in a way that delivers outstanding value for both parties. We’re extremely excited to have a great set of investors on board to help us take Expert360 to the next level. Our lead investor, Frontier Ventures, brings a wealth of global marketplace expertise that will be very valuable. We look forward to working with them.”
Frontier Ventures is a venture fund focussed on Internet investments in global emerging markets, with a main focus on consumer Internet services in Southeast Asia and Russia. Its portfolio includes Asia’s restaurant reservation platform Chope, Russia’s online video company ivi.ru and online marketplace business in Russia and CIS profi.ru. This investment marks the 10th online marketplace in Frontier Ventures’ portfolio and the fund’s second deal in the APAC region.
来自：e27
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