Tag: SaaS

  • Userpilot, an innovative growth platform, raises $4.6 million

    Userpilot, an innovative growth platform, raises $4.6 million

    Userpilot, a product-led platform built for SaaS companies, has raised $4.6 million in its latest funding round led by Silicon Badia with some partners, namely ScOp Ventures and 500 Global. This new funding round follows its previous round, in which it secured $1.2 million last year. The platform was designed to aid companies in achieving higher user activation, engagement, and retention rates by allowing them to personalise in-app onboarding experiences for users.
    In a statement, the CEO of Userpilot, Yazan Sehwail, told journalists that they intend to use the latest funding to construct new features, which will help the companies reduce customer support and engineering costs more.
    The CEO started his entrepreneurship journey in 2013 after his college education; he developed enterprise web software intended for the likes of BMW, a business that inspired his Userpilot strategy. In a statement:
    “During that time, we worked on various projects with companies such as BMW, and the idea for Userpilot came while working on one of our then-clients. We would spend a lot of time and resources on building features, only to find later that they were rarely used, and the client would have to deploy a lot of human resources to educate users about them.
    The idea behind Userpilot was to give the product team (non-technical) the ability to create no-code in-product experiences that would contextually introduce users to features based on their behaviour”.

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    The CEO also added that the startup’s increased capacity to customise experiences through a no-code editor helps product teams tailor-made content that feels and looks native to their applications. In a statement, he said:
    “With Userpilot [companies can also] segment users based on their attributes and behaviour. This allows product teams to contextually target users when it makes the most sense to do so”.
    Sehwail stated that presently Userpilot has over 700 customers, which are spread all over the world, among which include: UIPath, Oracle, McGraw Hill, and Phocas. Amongst its customers also includes GrowthMentor, which previously claimed to experience an 83% reduction in its support ticket after using Userpilot’s onboarding tools.
    Also, in a statement, the founding managing partner of Silicon Badia, Namek Zu’bi, said:
    “At Silicon Badia, we have always been big believers in the product-led growth (PLG) movement where the product drives user acquisition, expansion, conversion, and retention. Having invested in earlier PLG success stories like Amplitude (NASDAQ: AMPL), we believe that Userpilot is ushering in the next generation of PLG tools”.
    SaaS and its top 10 benefits
    SaaS is an application distribution model where cloud providers host apps and make them available to users through the internet. The adoption of SaaS has been rapidly increasing over the last decade outside the IT industry, and now with the cloud burst at its tipping point, they are giving their on-premise counterparts a run for their money. The main reason businesses adopt SaaS is that it aids your businesses in maximising costs while being highly flexible. Here are the sectors where SaaS is very popular: Mobile application, HR management software, Payroll and accounting software, Resource planning software, CRM software, and Performance management.
    There are numerous benefits one’s business can incur if the owner moves the infrastructure to the cloud, which means the owner uses SaaS. Here are the top benefits of SaaS for your businesses:
    Reduction of Costs: If one decides to use SaaS for their business, its many benefits can be obtained. Firstly, SaaS eliminates the upfront costs the user has to pay for purchase & installation, and ongoing costs like maintenance won’t be necessary again. SaaS apps are downloadable and maintenance-free for users, meaning the owner doesn’t need to spend much money on hardware and resources.
    Secondly, the SaaS pricing model, which is pay-as-you-go, allows businesses to reduce costs as they only pay for the software they are using and do not waste resources on licenses they don’t use.
    SaaS is very effective for small businesses as it provides them access to high-powered software, which is expensive through conventional methods, and most owners may not be able to afford it. SaaS platforms come with a subscription-based nature that eliminates the expensive nature of such software.
    It is a deployment model that handles infrastructure complexities and provides business apps without asking for resource-consuming hardware as the vendor handles that and lets you divert your resources to other processes.
    Reduces time consumption: A famous saying says “Time is money”. SaaS helps in saving time as installation only requires a stable internet connection and the acquisition of a log-in. The maintenance responsibilities that one incurs when using traditional software are shifted to the vendor when one uses SaaS, eliminating the time one would spend upgrading the software.
    Flexibility: Since the software is hosted externally by the SaaS application development company, it enables businesses to change their plan without giving any advanced warning. Also, the software can be accessed from anywhere worldwide, given internet use. It enables users to access their data anytime and work from anywhere, making the situation easier for those who work from home and those who operate on multiple sites.
    Other benefits include high compatibility and higher security. These outlined benefits are what give business owners the guarantee that SaaS is the future of computing, and most businesses prefer to use their “rent” software than pay for hardware and traditional software licenses. Also, the flexibility of SaaS benefits enterprises as it helps them grow.

  • Egyptian SaaS Platform FlapKap secures $1.2M funding

    Egyptian SaaS Platform FlapKap secures $1.2M funding

    FlapKap, an Egypt-based startup revolutionising e-commerce and SaaS growth in the MEA region, announces its launch and successful completion of a $1.2 million fundraising. The funding was led by A15, the leading MENA venture capital firm and one of the region’s most prominent backers of early-stage startups.

    About FlaKap

    FlapKap is the MEA’s first company of its kind, and it’s a regionalized counterpart of Clearco and Wayflyer. The startup was founded in 2021 by entrepreneurs with track records in e-commerce, media, and digital banking. The Co-founder and CEO Ahmad Coucha is also the co-founder of MENA’s leading advertising agency Kijamii and a Harvard graduate. Khaled Nassef, the co-founder and CTO, is formerly a German neobank N26 and Amazon, while Sherif Bichara, FinOps Manager, formerly at Helios and Lazard.

     

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    FlakKap has two key value propositions: first, it provides AI-based intelligence to online businesses to help them optimise their advertising expenditure and maximise earnings. Then, on that advertising spend, it offers these firms revenue-based variable payment arrangements to support long-term growth without liquidity restraints.

    Dominating MEA

    FlapKap is currently operating in the UAE and Egypt and will expand to Saudi Arabia shortly. The company also plans to expand across MEA and acquire merchants quickly.

    Talking about the funding, Ahmad Coucha remarked, “We are delighted to announce our launch and fundraise and have the backing of such an esteemed investor as A15 – one of the leading venture capital firms in the MENA region. It is a testament to our business model and validates our strategy.

    “We have taken a proven international business model and adapted it for the Middle East. Our solution empowers SMEs and startups to grow sustainably without losing equity and help manage their cashflows. With a first-mover advantage and a huge market opportunity, we are excited to extend the growth opportunities we have unlocked for our early clients to the whole region,” he added.

     

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    FlapKap’s market opportunity is substantial. According to Bain & Company, the MENA e-commerce market was valued at $8.4 billion in 2017, up 25% year over year since 2014, and is expected to reach $28.5 billion by 2022. FlapKap estimates these figures to have risen significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s accelerated adoption.

    “A15 is proud to lead the fundraising for FlapKap and to back its CEO, Ahmed Coucha, for –our second venture together. FlapKap is not only a visionary company with an excellent business model, but it is creating real tangible value for the region by helping SMEs grow. It also has a first-mover advantage in a significant market, creating a very bright future,” says Karim Beshara, General Partner at A15.