CRM platform Cooby raises pre-seed round from Sequoia’s Surge, others

US-based customer relationship management platform Cooby announced it has raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-seed round from Sequoia’s Surge and Pear VC.

The Cooby team/ Photo credit: Cooby

Two undisclosed facebook directors,  senior director of product management at Facebook Rushabh Doshi, and ex-president of Grindr Scott Chen also participated in the funding round, along with the Hustle Fund.

Founded in October 2020 by former Facebook executives Wen Shaw and Jocelin Ho, Cooby provides tools for salespeople to automatically create client profiles, document meetings, track conversations, and manage tasks. The application targets service-oriented salespeople who talk to clients primarily through messaging apps like WhatsApp and Line.

Cooby’s operations are conducted out of Taipei in Taiwan and targets the Southeast Asian market.

Funds raised from the financing round will be used to hire a team to build the company’s initial product, launch, test, and build its first user base.

“Traditional sales tools in the US are built around emails, but salespeople in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia think messaging (e.g., WhatsApp) is the most effective communication channel,” said Shaw. “We felt this pain personally when we had to use Line to build relationships with many people in Taiwan.”

See also: How CXA’s big SaaS bet paid off during Covid-19

The company aims to provide customer management tools for businesses in emerging markets that cater to specific needs and business cultures, similar to that of the West.