Toku, Asia Pacific’s (APAC) only dedicated cloud communications provider, today announced a USD5 million extension of its Series A round, bringing its total funding to USD10 million.
The extended round was co-led by Delivery Hero Ventures and Malaysia’s OSK Ventures International with participation from Betatron Venture Group.
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“We are thrilled to welcome both new and returning investors to join us on our mission to reimagine customer experience (CX) for Asia Pacific,” said Thomas Laboulle, Founder and CEO, Toku. “As the APAC digital economy continues to mature, customer experience has emerged as a key differentiator and a major driver of value for businesses. We are heartened that our investors share our vision in building the future of CX in the region.”
Toku has a clear path to profitability, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 128 per cent over the past four years, including the forecasted financial results for FY 2022 ending on 31 December 2022. The company is closing in on half a billion customer interactions processed annually across 17 markets in APAC.
“This funding extension is a strong show of confidence that we are on the right track, and cements our position as the leading customer experience enabler built in Asia Pacific, for businesses operating in the region,” Laboulle added.
Recent research by Toku revealed that consumers increasingly expect proactive service standards and personalised interactions as a given. For example, 71 per cent of respondents said they would be frustrated if a company has no local number to call when needed, and 67 per cent prefer to communicate within a brand’s app environment for a unified experience.
These evolving expectations and rising standards underscore the importance of modern customer engagement in the digital economy.
Toku works with leading regional brands such as foodpanda, Gojek, Lenskart, Decathlon and JCDecaux to not only solve their customer experience pain points but leverage their challenges for growth.
“Toku has earned a reputation for exceeding its customers’ expectations,” said Brendon Blacker, Managing Partner at Delivery Hero Ventures. “We couldn’t be more excited to continue partnering with Thomas and the team to enable more enterprises across APAC to pursue their digital transformation journey with Toku.”
Funding to accelerate regional expansion
To empower more APAC businesses to seize and transform their CX challenges into opportunities, Toku will tap into the new funding extension to rapidly establish a local presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea and the Philippines. It also aims to double its total headcount to a strength of 200 by 2024.
“With customer experience being a crucial focal point for businesses today, Toku’s accelerated expansion across APAC with this funding round will enable more companies to deliver impactful results. We share Thomas’ vision to empower businesses with Toku’s capable solutions and are excited to be part of their high-growth journey ahead,” said Amelia Ong, Executive Director and CEO of OSK Ventures International.
The company will continue to invest in innovation and technology to reimagine holistic customer experience for the digital-first economy. This includes unifying customer experience and employee experience into an all-in-one platform to fuel personalised customer journeys for businesses in APAC.
“Toku is typical of the fast-growing, resilient businesses we like to invest in at Betatron. Having worked with the Toku team since 2019, we have great confidence in their ability to modernise critical communications services and to expand rapidly across APAC even against a backdrop of economic uncertainty,” said Matthias Knobloch, Managing Partner and CEO of Betatron Venture Group.
Source: Toku
