Limechat Revenue & Funding (2024)

[00:00] Hey, folks. My guest today is Aniket Bajpai. He's the co founder and head of growth at limechat, the leading provider of customer support automation and conversational commerce for ecommerce brands. Aniket, are you ready to take us to the top? [00:12] >> Yeah. Definitely. [00:13] Alright. So the website is limechat.ai. Tell me about who you're selling to. [00:19] >> Yeah. So we basically target mid and large size ecommerce brands. So these are brands which have their own website with on Shopify, and we help them kind of give their visitors a very guided buying experience on their website and also leverage conversational channels like WhatsApp, Messenger, iMessage to give a complete end to end buying journey. [00:39] And, Aniket, when you sign these customers up, what are they paying you on average per month to use your technology? [00:46] >> They pay around $1,000 a month. $500 depending on their size. Of course, is pay as you go based on the usage that they do, but that is the typical amount that we pay. [00:55] How do you measure usage? [00:59] >> So we charge in the basis of number of conversations that happen on our platform. Right? Since we give a guided buying experience, which is essentially a conversation with their users. So we charge in the basis of number of conversations that we have. [01:12] I see. And how many customers are you now working with today? [01:16] >> We're working with 60 brands now, currently. [01:18] Six zero? [01:20] >> Yes. [01:21] And when did you guys launch? When did you get your first customer? [01:24] >> We we launched just around a year back in September 2020. We started in March, and we got our first customer in September. [01:32] First customer. Who was the first customer? Do you remember? [01:35] >> Yes. Yes. It is a brand called Bella Wheat Organic. We're very happy to be working with them right now as well, and we are constantly in touch with them. They have actually also grown more than 10x in the past one year because the ecommerce brand space has been booming, but it has been an absolute pleasure. [01:49] Now can we take 60 customers today paying $500 a month? You guys are doing about $30,000 a month in revenue. Is that right? [01:57] >> Yes. That's about right. [01:58] And where were you doing exactly a year ago in November 2020? [02:04] >> In November 2020, we just had four to five customers with whom we were working very closely to build our product to achieve product market share. So in terms of revenue, we were we were at roughly 2 or $3,000 a month. [02:18] That's incredible. Yeah. So you guys are obviously growing really nicely here now, up to 60 customers. Have you done all this, and I get bootstrapped, did you decide to raise? [02:28] >> We we did raise a convertible note last year. So, yeah, we are not good start in this particular startup. Right? We actually got selected into Y Combinator as well, but we so we raised from there, and we were able to raise a convertible note after that. So that is what has gotten us going. We didn't dilute too much in this in that. [02:47] Mhmm. And so when you how much did you raise in your pre seed last year? [02:52] >> Right. So we raised around $750k USD, and we we raised it as a convertible note at an uncapped valuation, and a discount of 20% to the next round's valuation. [03:03] Yep. When do you think you might be doing a next round so we know what that actually becomes worth equity wise? [03:09] >> Yes. Yes. We will be doing the next round very soon in the next one or two months. [03:12] Oh, okay. So you're basic I mean, you're basically raising now then. How much do you wanna raise? [03:16] >> Yes. Yes. We're raising around 4 to $5,000,000 at around $20,000,000 valuation because we want to grow really, really fast. We feel that we have a cheap product market fit, and we just want to push the credit. So so, yeah, we're actively looking to raise. [03:30] Do you have a lead investor yet? [03:33] >> Yeah. We're in talks with several people now. [03:35] I see. And and and do you think you'll be able to get a $20,000,000 valuation doing 360,000 a year right now in revenue? That's a fairly substantial revenue multiple. [03:45] >> Yes. Yes. I believe that since we have a very very good growth rate, we're growing at 30 to 40% month on month since the past six to seven months. And we can kind of take a forward multiple. When the round will actually close, it will already be three months. And our revenue will double at least. So we're kind of taking a multiple on that. Right? [04:05] I see. And that is how we are kind of justifying the [04:08] >> valuation. [04:09] Tell me more about the strategy you guys are using. [04:10] >> You have [04:11] a very specific niche you're targeting, these ecommerce brands. How are you going from five customers last year to 60 today and to 600 next year, hopefully? [04:18] >> Yes. Yes. So we have two major acquisition channels. One is through Shopify and the Shopify ecosystem, which is a group of communities and, like, blogs and basically word-of-mouth because the Shopify ecosystem is super connected. And, of course, you kind of get some inbound leads to Shopify. So that is one major source of leads for us. The second [04:39] is do you get per month from Shopify? [04:43] >> Current we have just started a Shopify approach, so we get around five to 10 leads per month. The majority of our leads actually come through our outbound approach. We get around 30 leads per month at least through that, and that is through sending outbound messages on email, LinkedIn, stuff like that to What [04:59] what job titles do target on LinkedIn? [05:02] >> We sell to the VP of marketing and the VP of customer support. Right? Because we have two products now internally. One is remarketing product, and one is just a customer support automation bot. So for for these, we target these two personas, respectively. [05:15] Okay. And what's that first message sound like? Give me a flavor of it. [05:20] >> Sure. So let me tell if I talk about the customer support automation product, it basically it says that you customer support giving good customer support, being in touch with your customers is important. And you if you actually want to do that, you no longer need to put 10 to 15 agents, right, and pay them $50,000 a year to do that. You can just have one human, and you can put limechat spot, and you can get incredible [05:50] >> you can give consistent, incredible support to all all of your customers and improve your retention. And this is being used by a lot of top eight and nine figure brands in the world like Mama, Twelfth and Saints. So, like, if you if this sounds interesting to you, please jump on a call and let's move ahead. Right? [06:07] That feels like a really long message to send as a cold message on LinkedIn. Is is that really what you send? If it's it's a lot of text like that? [06:16] >> I of course, the message is this was, like this had a lot of points in the which is actually sent in the first three messages. The main the main thing we focus on is the value and the clients that we have in just two to three lines. Right? The copywriting is obviously much much better. But but yeah. Like, the the the one liner is that you can give great customer support experience and spend no additional amount. [06:43] I see. Aniket, take me back to to when you guys got going. Is it just you, or how many founders do you have? [06:48] >> Yes. We have I I have another founder. There are two founders, both of us. [06:52] Yeah. Two founders. And did you guys split equity fifty fifty at the start? [06:56] >> Yes. Yes. [06:58] And so today, obviously, we don't you still own 50/50 because the 750 k raise hasn't converted to equity yet. Right? [07:05] >> Yes. Yes. [07:06] Yeah. But you anticipate have an ESOP pool. [07:09] >> Right? So that is one part, which is [07:12] How big is that? We [07:13] >> we allocated 10% as an ESOP pool because we, yeah, we wanted to give our employees a much bigger share in the ownership, and we have around 20 employees now. [07:23] Oh, wow. Okay. So you you own 45%. Your cofounder owns 45%. You have a 10% ESOP pool, and you have 20 employees right now. [07:31] >> Right. Right. [07:32] How many engineers? [07:34] >> I would say around 10 to 12 engineers. [07:37] And and where are they all based, Aniket? [07:40] >> We are based in Bangalore in India. [07:42] What's it like? You know, I wanna get over there. I hear so many great founders building companies in Pune, Chennai. We have Freshworks IPO ing. We've got Kobai three sixty with Saravana. It just there's so much energy over there. What's it like? [07:54] >> Right. So for the entire Indian startup ecosystem, there are several nodes, but Bangalore is like the central hub. Right? The weather is obviously great like Silicon Valley, but the startup ecosystem especially is awesome, especially for SaaS. Right? There are a lot of great SaaS companies here like, [08:12] >> a lot a lot of them. Right? They have obviously not reached IPO level like Freshworks, but they are pretty pretty big, like, in terms of ARR. And the main thing is the energy, right? There is an area in Bangalore where like even if you go in a cafe, you'll find people discussing their startup because that area is filled with entrepreneurs and startup founders and folks who are working at startups. So so that is something which makes [08:37] >> it very, very exciting each and every day to be surrounded by people like that, to surrounded to be surrounded with the best talented folks who are putting their energies in the right direction. It's gotta say it [08:48] sounds sounds like a lot of fun. Let's wrap up here with the famous five, Aniket. Number one, favorite business book? [08:55] >> The hard thing about hard things. [08:57] Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying? [09:02] >> We're following Jeff Bezos. [09:04] Really And [09:05] number three, what's your favorite online tool for building limechat? [09:13] >> Slack is definitely super useful. Yeah. [09:16] Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night? [09:20] >> I sleep seven and a half hours every every night. [09:22] That's good. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids? [09:25] >> I'm single. [09:27] Okay. No kids. How old are you? [09:29] >> I'm 25. [09:31] 26? [09:32] >> Oh, 25. [09:33] Oh, 25. Okay. Great. Last question. What's something you wish you knew when you were 20? [09:41] >> I [09:44] >> mean, there are definitely a lot of things, but the main thing is that you should pick pick the absolute right people to work with because, like, the the the idea or the problem or what you're doing is all secondary, the people whom you work with, that that that defines the output, and that makes you have the most fun, like, if you pick the right people. [10:04] Mhmm. Guys, limechat.ai, AI chatbot for ecommerce brands. They were doing $3,000 a month in revenue a year ago, now doing $30,000 a month. 10 x year over year growth. They raised 750,000 seed last year uncapped, now targeting a $4,000,000 raise at a $20,000,000 valuation. We'll see if they can get it done. Team of twenty building in Bangalore, again, scaling up into these mid market enterprise accounts. And, Aniket, thank you for taking us to the top. [10:28] >> Awesome. Great great coming to your podcast. 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