With mobile applications quickly growing indispensable, at least for the Internet savvy portion of the populace, those who run these apps have begun to be faced with a problem. How do you effectively engage with your user? Startups like CleverTap are making a business out of providing the answer.
Based in Mumbai, the two-year-old startup offers online service businesses with a way to enhance their digital marketing. “What we provide these firms with is a way to track consumer behaviour real time, and figure out how to engage with them. Which customer do you send push notifications to? What offers do you alert a particular customer to? We provide them a means to do that,” said Anand Jain, Co-founder, CleverTap.
CleverTap, Jain says, is a mobile app engagement enabler platform designed to make mobile app engagement relevant, contextual and personal. The firm has already acquired several major clients who use their services. Their domestic customers include BookMyShow, Craftsvilla, Voonik, Ixigo, Zoomcar, Club Mahindra, Faasos, BillBachao, Via.com, Times Now, ZeeTV and India TV. Internationally, they serve many including DealsPlus, Totspot, Disqus, CastOff, SeenStream and History TV.
“We have been adding several clients and at a very steady rate,” said Jain. For most of these clients, the true value CleverTap offers is the option to track consumer behaviour real time - enabling app analytics at considerable speeds and engaging with users via push notifications, in-app messages, emails or web notifications.
For example, most marketing notifications are almost instantly trashed by customers because they just aren’t relevant to them. Like a woman getting push notifications on offers for shaving creams and men’s perfumes or a man getting notifications for make-up kits. “Through us, online businesses can figure out which consumer requires which marketing strategy. It helps them grow better connections with their customers, instead of overloading them with offer notifications they do not need,” said Jain.
It also helps figure out app and website usage pattern and allows marketers to engage with their customers more personally. “The technology is built for today and it scales as the company grow - whether it has millions of app users, or are a small startup,” said Jain. However, CleverTap itself does not perform any data analytics, he clarified.
As of now, CleverTap has acquired around $9.5 million in funding. The most recent round of funding saw it raise $8 million from venture capital firms Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital. “There isn’t any fund raising plans in the pipeline as of now. But we are always open to opportunities,” said Jain.