SaaS startup OceanFrogs provides sales intelligence to help enterprises grow revenue
Bootstrapped since inception, Saas-based startup OceanFrogs helps enterprises and SMBs grow their revenue by connecting them with the right accounts and decision-makers.
Vinay Mehendiratta, Founder of OceanFrogs
Vinay Mehendiratta, a PhD from Clemson University, prefers doing his homework before meeting potential customers. This includes gathering data points such as pain points, investments, and technology usage, among others.
“The lack of data-driven discussions in sales calls bothered me. There were leads in CRM, but no sales intelligence on accounts. Sales and pre-sales decisions were based on institutions with intelligence,” he tells .
This personal pain point led to the ideation and launch of . The B2B SaaS-based sales intelligence solution startup helps sales and marketers in enterprises impact revenue growth by connecting them with the right accounts and decision-makers.
Founded in 2017, OceanFrogs is based out of Bengaluru and San Jose.
In 2019, the startup was selected by Accenture Venture to be a part of its startup ecosystem. In December 2019, it was also a part of OceanPro, the Maersk Global Accelerator. It is also a part of the Mphasis Accelerator.
Meet the team
Vinay has a PhD in industrial engineering and operations research. He has previously worked with Norfolk Southern Railroads in the US. He has been a senior project manager, advance analytics and optimisation, at TCS, and management consultant at IBM. Prior to taking the entrepreneurial plunge, Vinay headed analytics at Eka Software Solutions, where he honed his product development skills.
Deepak Krishnana, former business analyst at Eka, later joined the OceanFrogs team as a core team member. In November, last year, Rishi Dhawan, former regional vice president at Gartner INC, joined OceanFrogs as advisor to the Board. The startup is mentored by Upekkha Accelerator.
Speaking on having a base in India and San Jose, Vinay says, “We initially did many data science projects in marketing analytics such as attribution modeling, data enrichment, and campaigns response analysis for enterprises such as Aventri, Event.com, and BMI to understand the domain, to find problem-market fitment. And our team is situated in both the locations.”
The SaaS startup at present has a team of 25 employees, working from Bhopal, Nagpur, and Bengaluru.
OceanFrogs spent its first year piloting and developing the product-market fit. It started with customers in the oil and gas, commodities, airport, airline, and pharmaceutical sectors. Vinay has so far invested Rs 25 lakh in the venture.
Team at OceanFrogs
Services and the clientele
OceanFrogs helps its enterprise clients to build a sales pipeline automatically. It uses technologies such as its in-house algorithms, data mining, and data enrichment techniques to identify target accounts and decision makers, based on specifications defined by the clients.
Its data has applications for marketers, recruiters, sales, and channel partners. Clients use OceanFrogs’s data to conduct outreach campaigns. Sales channels use the intelligence to engage with partners, and inbound marketers use data to qualify leads and assign to sales in real time.
“We continuously add more industries, technologies, and roles to our data. Labeling algorithms keeps doing the magic on the backend,” Vinay says.
The customer intelligence platform allows its clients to identify the right accounts using filters, technology, team intelligence, and buying intent.
“Our focus is to help clients focus on selling from day two, and not spend six months building the target account list,” Vinay says.
The SaaS products are available on an annual contract basis, prices for which start from $3,500. Most of OceanFrog's clients are either growth companies or enterprises.
Bootstrapped since inception, OceanFrogs has worked with 52 customers in the enterprise and SME sectors so far, including Capillary Technology, Eka Software, Knolskape, and GrayMatter Software.
“Our ideal customers are B2B IT enterprises who are hungry for growth in India and abroad. These companies intend to grow with customers and channel sales. Some of them go big on inbound and others on both,” Vinay explains.
Market overview and the future
According to MarketsAndMarkets, the overall business intelligence market is expected to grow from $17.09 billion in 2016 to $26.88 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 9.5 percent.
OceanFrogs competes with the likes of ZoomInfo, D&B Hoovers, Tap Clicks, Inside View, Datafox, Etta.ai, and Bombora.
However, Vinay clarifies that the startup is not a static database list provider.
“Our platform helps identify the right accounts by tracking technology usage, intent, account prioritisation, lead scoring, and sales triggers on prospects and existing customers. We want to be the next-generation ZoomInfo.”
Going ahead, OceanFrogs plans to strengthen its market presence by signing 50 more clients. It aims to hit the $250,000 revenue mark by FY21, and expand to other geographies.
“Since the pandemic, marketing and sales have become challenging. Some of our customers have postponed engagements. Identifying and engaging with the right customers has become more important, and we are helping our clients do that,” Vinay says.
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)