Manychat, the world’s largest company-to-person business messaging platform just raised $140 million at an $800 million valuation. This significant funding round was led by Summit Partners. Founded by Mike Yan and Anton Morin, the company aims to enhance its platform, which allows brands to manage and automate customer conversations across various messaging channels. This makes a great strategic move right as Manychat is set to bring more artificial intelligence capabilities to their platform to further strengthen it.
Manychat was launched long before the generative AI and AI chatbots explosion. In the last ten years, its usage growth has overlapped ever-more closely with the birth of smartphone-based messaging applications. The platform originally focused on developing chatbots only for businesses using Telegram. It has since expanded its product to accommodate trending channels such as TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. As we’ve seen, Manychat today serves over 1.5 million businesses from over 170 countries. Its prominent clients include Nike, The New York Times and Yahoo.
The company is said to currently operate on very low margins while remaining profitable. Funding history Manychat has crowdfunding of about $23 million in different rounds during the previous years. Much of that total stems from its huge $18 million Series A round in 2019. Its current valuation is almost certainly well above the paltry $58 million post-money valuation set during that Series A round.
With an ability to send “billions” of messages per year on behalf of its users, Manychat’s platform is built for scale. The sheer volume is a testament to successful implementation of the engagement layer approach. Businesses are very bullish on it and they really want to reach these consumers.
Mike Yan, co-founder of Manychat, says it’s critically important to begin using messaging apps to engage with customers. He states,
“They should be using messaging apps actually to connect with customers, that’s where the new wave of communication is happening. That’s where the new consumer is.”
This focus on conversational marketing speaks to Manychat’s mission of making communication easy and accessible in an ever-changing digital world.
Recent funding will allow Manychat to bring more features to their platform. The company will be rolling out high-end AI features that enhance the overall user experience and improve engagement features. The industrial company’s commitment to be cutting edge in a highly competitive market. For many businesses, the benefits of being able to message customers directly is too valuable an opportunity to ignore.
Manychat’s runaway success is proof of the demand for smarter, more efficient, less intrusive communication, as brands move to engage with their customers in more meaningful ways. Tapping into Delivery, the company’s ability to change and develop new ideas in response to changing consumer behaviors has it poised for long-term growth.
