Alice Labs, an AI-driven multi-channel customer support platform for e-commerce and online businesses, on Tuesday, announced the completion of a US$500,000 seed round of financing.
The round was led by Anchorless Bangladesh, with participation from HOF Capital.
Alice Labs plans to use the funds to further invest in its core product offerings and expand into Southeast Asia and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) markets, build partnerships with key industry players, and further develop its distribution channel to reach more customers.
A closer look into Alice Labs
Founded in November 2018, by Shuvo Rahman, Alice Labs develops smart tools and conversational AI (artificial intelligence) solutions with a mission to streamline customer support and make it more efficient.
The platform said businesses can connect all of their customer-facing channels through Alice; automate the conversation for both sales and support through natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) while handling the rest through live chat.
With Alice’s conversational AI tools, clients can automate over 70 per cent of conversations, reduce support costs by 33 per cent, and increase sales by up to 20 per cent.
"Over the past two years, we have refined our technology and product-market fit, developing a keen understanding of the challenges in the customer service space, and offering unique solutions in response,” said Shuvo Rahman, founder and CEO of Alice Labs, adding “Both Anchorless Bangladesh and HOF Capital share our vision and can help us accelerate our growth with key connections and market insights.”
Mr Rahman has extensive experience in developing and implementing machine learning solutions.
Alice Labs is currently active in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, and Singapore. Through its subscription-based customer support plans, Alice works with over 50 e-commerce stores and enterprises throughout the region, including major brands and retailers like Unilever, Coca-Cola, Giordano, and Maybelline.
“Alice has an edge in being able to service markets that are often overlooked by larger global players. Highly driven and disciplined founders are able to successfully leverage the country’s vast tech talent to build a cutting-edge product suitable for international markets,” said Rahat Ahmed, Founding Partner and CEO at Anchorless Bangladesh, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on advancing the local startup ecosystem.
In Bangladesh, they work with reputed banks as clients such as Prime Bank, BRAC Bank, Mutual Trust Bank and National Bank. Through machine learning, Alice enables businesses to communicate better with customers in their native languages and cater to diverse consumer habits.
The opportunities for Alice Labs as a SaaS startup
Thanks to the emergence of social media and engagement across various platforms, customer engagement is fragmented into different siloes, resulting in shorter attention spans amid a flood of information.
Hence, online business operators face new challenges in providing quality customer support and miss out sales opportunities, said Alice Labs. With its SaaS platform and conversational AI solutions, it resolves these challenges while improving customer experience and retaining brand value.
“We are excited by Alice’s potential, particularly its global application. The startup has managed to produce considerable traction with leading enterprises on a global scale already and this capital infusion will further augment Alice’s reach,” said Tala Al Jabri, General Partner at HOF Capital.