Sequoia's Surge writes $1.9 mn seed cheque to SaaS platform BiteSpeed

By Kaushiki Chatterjee

  • 14 Feb 2022
Credit: 123RF.com

Actartly Technology Pvt Ltd, which runs software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform BiteSpeed, on Monday, said it has bagged seed funding of $1.9 million (around Rs 14 crore) led by Sequoia India’s Surge.

The round also saw participation from First Cheque, Whiteboard Capital, Cred’s Founder Kunal Shah and Ankur Nagpal, Founder of Teachable. 

"At BiteSpeed, we're building the conversational commerce stack for e-commerce brands to engage and sell to their customers on chat. Since our launch in October 2019, we’re grateful to now be working with over 1,500 brands in more than 50 countries around the globe.  

With the funds raised, we look forward to hiring across our tech, marketing and product teams as well as expanding our presence in the United States, Europe and Latin America,” said Vinayak Aggarwal, Founder of BiteSpeed. 

Founded in June 2019 by Aggarwal, BiteSpeed’s platform helps direct-to-consumer brands retarget and retain their customers over chat apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. It provides the tools for e-commerce brands to be able to sell and engage with their customers on these chat apps. 

The platform claimed it is a part of Surge's sixth cohort of 20 companies that build fresher, smarter solutions to help consumers and businesses adapt to a changing world. 

Surge is Sequoia India’s startup accelerator program in India and Southeast Asia.  It offers $1-2 million of seed capital with company-building workshops, a global curriculum and support. 

Last year, San Jose, California-based people management platform Mesh raised $5 million (Rs 37.4 crore) in a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital’s Surge.