Large and medium-sized enterprises and businesses are increasingly adopting – and offering – software-as-a-service platforms to increase revenue and translate their growth into greater efficiency. Now a young start-up, Emitr, aims to bring the benefits of this model to small and local businesses in the US. Emitrr claims to help small businesses by automating tasks such as appointment reminders and review generations. On Tuesday, the startup, led by two Indian co-founders, announced that it has raised $4 million in a Pre-Series A round to expand its automation solution in the US market.
Chiratae Ventures, headquartered in Bengaluru, led Emitrr’s funding round, which also included Venture Highway, FortyTwo VC and Axilor Ventures.
“We are essentially a business text messaging software and an automation software for local businesses in the US,” said Anmol Oberoi, founder of Emitrr, in an interview with businesskinda.com.
Founded by Oberoi and his partner Pulkit Gambhir in December 2020, Emitrr claims that more than 150 local businesses in the US are using its platform. These companies range from single-location healthcare practices to multi-location home service companies. The startup also has some small business clients in Australia and Canada.
Anmol Oberoi (left) and Pulkit Gambhir (right)
Serving global markets and with no clients in India, the Delaware-based startup employs a team of 25 people — most of whom work remotely from tier-two and tier-three cities — in the South Asian market.
Emitrr works with over a thousand vertical CRM platforms that local businesses often use to solve customer management activities. Oberoi said Emitrr has built seven to eight different automation models to date that work through the short message service (SMS).
Local health centers, dentists and home service providers can use these automation models to send their customers appointment reminders and service follow-ups for feedback and reviews. Oberoi told businesskinda.com that while Emitrr has a strong focus on healthcare and home services, it’s starting to get clients from real estate, salons, restaurants and other various industries.
It is noteworthy that Emitrr uses traditional text messaging via WhatsApp for its tasks. Oberoi said people in many markets, including the US, Australia and Canada, still prefer using texting over third-party offerings, but added that it’s within reach for the startup to quickly use WhatsApp or any email. adopt other instant messaging service on the platform.
Emitrr brings automation to business communications
“Our platform can be used by any local business in the world,” he said. “We automate the tasks performed by receptionists who sit in the dental office and the front desk clerk who sits in the restaurant.”
Since Emitrr sends and receives messages directly from businesses to customers, it often handles sensitive information. Oberoi said there is system-wide encryption to ensure the security and safety of data processed by the platform.
“Both our incoming and outgoing text messages are fully encrypted,” he said. The company also complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to prevent sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.
“We have a single-tenant architecture, so if there is a compromise, even in that case, the compromise will only be for one client — not for the hundreds of clients we have,” said Oberoi.
Emitrr is not alone in selling business communication automation platforms. Companies such as Weave and Podium operate in the same space and target small businesses.
Oberoi claimed that Emitrr has a cost advantage over the competition and can identify many problems that its main competitors do not solve in the market. “It’s primarily the product and support that will allow us to take customers away from Weave and Podium,” he said.
With the new funding, Emitrr plans to deepen the platform to expand the scope of automation and solve 15 to 20 problems for small businesses. It also aims to double its go-to-market movement.
“Pulkit and Anmol bring in-depth domain knowledge and we are pleased to partner with them in their growth journey of building and offering real-world applicability and practical use cases solutions,” said Venkatesh Peddi, Managing Director and Partner, Chiratae Ventures, in a statement.
Prior to the new round, Emitrr had raised about $495,000 from Venture Highway, Axilor Ventures and some investors.
“Small and local businesses like your local dentist or a salon, in the US and around the world have a unique set of challenges, including the lack or very low digitization of customer-facing workflows,” said Samir Sood, Founding Partner, Venture Highway. “The ability to maintain high standards of service with little to no human contact, against the backdrop of expensive labor, is a major problem waiting to be solved. The founders have unique insights into the space and have a clear vision of how to produce the entire customer-centric journey and improve the customer experience for these companies — Emitrr is building a ‘go-to’ solution,” Sood said.
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