[Funding alert] Customer service platform Richpanel raises investment from Sequoia’s Surge

Richpanel, a customer service platform for the ecommerce industry, has raised an undisclosed investment as part of Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, a rapid scale-up programme for startups in Southeast Asia and India.

Founded in January 2019 by Amit RG and GDJ Dorai, Mumbai and the US-based Richpanel’s self-service platform allows merchants to design an Amazon-style account page on their store, where they can automate order tracking, returns, exchanges, cancellations, order changes, and more, which would otherwise result in a support ticket. The platform also provides an agent inbox that help brands manage all their support channels - email, live chat, social media, and phone - from one place.

Today, over 1,000 merchants all over the world use Richpanel every day to support their customers, the startup said.

ALSO READ

[Funding alert] Conversational AI platform Mihup raises $1.5M in ongoing Series A round

Richpanel claims that its solution is an alternative to other helpdesk software, as well as customer care outsourcing services available in the market today - areas where businesses are expected to spend $110 billion by 2024.

“The first time I disputed a cancellation fee on a ride-sharing platform, I mentally prepared myself for a 15-minute-long chat with a support rep, but I was pleasantly surprised when the entire process took less than 60 seconds. This automated customer service support technology can save ecommerce businesses millions of dollars, and we felt there was a real need to productise this for everyone else,” said Amit RG, CEO at Richpanel.

“At Richpanel, our goal is to help clients eliminate unnecessary support tickets. Businesses have tried chatbots, FAQs and help center solutions, but what they need is a solution that does not ‘deflect’ customers but ‘resolves’ their issues. Currently, our platform is able to resolve 40-50 percent of incoming queries, but we believe that we can eventually take this up to 80 percent,” Amit added.

The startup includes clients such as US-based apparel company Pawz that claims to be seeing positive results with Richpanel.

“Currently, our self-service flows powered by Richpanel are able to close nearly 60 percent of all incoming queries or tickets, without the need to interact with an agent,” said Julian Quintães, CEO at Pawz.