Privyr, a Singapore-based startup that helps consumer-facing salespeople and businesses convert leads right from their phones, said Tuesday it has raised $6 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by MassMutual Ventures and Vulcan Capital, with participation from Wavemaker Partners, bestselling author Nir Eyal, and former Facebook executive Gwendolyn Regina, Privyr said in a statement.

The startup previously raised $900,000 from Wavemaker Partners, Entrepreneur First, and several angel investors.

According to Privyr, the new funding will be used to expand its product capabilities, increase market penetration, and scale its team from less than 10 employees to over 40 within a year.

Privyr builds a mobile-first sales productivity and workflow management tool that helps salespeople and small businesses better engage and convert their leads into clients through channels like WhatsApp, SMS, iMessage, and phone calls. Its goal is to make sales interactions more personalised and convenient, leading to much better customer experiences and sales conversion rates.

“Over the past few years, virtually all consumer-facing sales have moved to mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp or iMessage. What used to happen in a few face-to-face meetings has turned into hundreds of micro-interactions with dozens of leads at the same time. Salespeople are spending hours every day copying and pasting messages, updating spreadsheets, and trying to figure out who they need to follow up with – it’s a complete mess,” said Privyr Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Aaron Lim, who previously led CRM initiatives at financial powerhouses BlackRock and GIC.

While many businesses are turning to chatbots and automation to solve this problem, Lim believes there’s room for a different type of solution.

“If you’re in a high touch profession that’s built on human relationships, putting a chatbot in between you and your customer removes the personal interactions they’re looking for. Instead, Privyr provides an easier and more efficient way for businesses to personalise engagements and manage client relationships from their phones,” he added.

Globally, over 45,000 sales professionals across more than 75 countries use Privyr. Its app has helped businesses receive and engage with over 20 million leads from sources such as Facebook, TikTok, and Google.

In contrast to most customer relationship managements (CRMs) – which target medium to large businesses and enterprises – the majority of the startup’s customers are individual salespeople and micro-small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in both developed and developing markets. Their user base comes from hundreds of professions, including real estate agents, insurance brokers, financial planners, interior designers, wedding photographers, personal trainers, chiropractors, astrologers, and even magicians. Privyr’s investors believe there’s a big opportunity to be captured.

“There’s incredible demand for simple, mobile-based solutions targeted at individuals and SMEs – particularly in developing markets where sales primarily happen on mobile and WhatsApp. Privyr’s solution addresses a massive pain point in the sales process and the fact that the company has come this far with zero sales or marketing staff is a testament to the widespread appeal of such a product,” said MassMutual Ventures Managing Director Anvesh Ramineni.

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