Workplace app Eko nets $20m funding from SMDV, AirAsia, and others

Workplace collaboration platform Eko has landed US$20 million in a series B round led by Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV), the VC unit of Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Group.

RedBeat Ventures, AirAsia’s digital investment arm, also participated, along with East Ventures, Gobi Partners, and several existing investors.

The Bangkok-based startup said it would use the funds to accelerate its expansion into the European and North American markets.

The Eko team / Photo credit: Eko

Eko claims that its revenue has more than tripled since its last capital injection from Japanese trading house Itucho just over a year ago. Over 500,000 recurring paid users from hundreds of “medium to large enterprises” in industries such as banking, hospitality, and retail have signed up on its platform, which includes threaded chat, teleconferencing, and workflow management, among other features.

About a fifth of Eko’s 110-strong team are already based in Europe and North America, and the Thai startup says it is already laying the ground for expansion in those regions.

“The EU’s economy is roughly seven times larger than that of Southeast Asia’s, while the US is roughly the same size as Europe,” said Eko founder and CEO Korawad Chearavanont. “The difference in the size of the enterprise IT market is even wider, as the EU and the US spend heavily on software. Thus, if Eko is to achieve the necessary scale to become a serious global player in the mobile enterprise market, continued growth in these markets is critical.”

It faces no shortage of competition in the workplace collaboration vertical, with Silicon Valley unicorn Slack, tech giant Microsoft, and Alibaba-backed Dingtalk among the throng of players to contend with.

Eko claims it is differentiated by its mobile-first approach, cost-effective pricing structure, flexibility with regard to integrating legacy tools via APIs, and the heightened security and confidentiality it can offer.

In addition to last year’s strategic investment from Itucho, Eko previously raised US$5.7 million in a Gobi Partners-led series A round, following a US$1 million seed injection from 500 Startups and angel investors.