We have received news that Ongair has secured seed funding from early stage venture capital firm and global innovation accelerator Nest as it seeks to use Nest’s experience and strategic networks to branch into Asia. This is a big step for Ongair, a web based dashboard that enables businesses to handle their customer service through instant messaging platforms such as Whatsapp, WeChat, Telegram and Line.
With the capital input from Nest, Ongair can focus on rapidly growing their product into the Asian market increasing their reach and usage in the global market. When we interviewed them a while back, they said that 70% of their users are overseas with more than 40 countries on board. One of the reasons for their popularity is because they have a globally unique product. As Charles Gichuki put it, they are the only WeChat-to-Zendesk and Whatsapp-Zendesk integrator globally. Ongair is also the only IM aggregator worldwide offering Whatsapp, Messenger, WeChat and Telegram integration, with plans to add more Instant Messaging platforms.
“We are very excited about the growth Ongair is experiencing and believe that with this additional capital, network and strategic input, the company can grow even more rapidly and scale into Asia with Nest’s support to set up in Hong Kong and enter China” said Aaron Fu, Managing Partner, Nest, Africa. Nest has been on the forefront of helping African businesses scale and grow globally with focus on the Asian market as they told us here. Ongair setting up shop in Hong Kong will put them at a strategic point as they expand into the Asian market. With WeChat integration, the most popular Instant Messaging platform in Asia, they will be at an advantage.
The seed input from Nest is in preparation for Series A funding that Ongair is planning to raise next year. The total funding received from Nest, Zeytin Limited, Venture Kinetics and other angel investors is USD 125,000, however we are not sure how much Nest has contributed towards this fund. All in all things are looking good for Ongair, especially with Nest by their side as the truly go global with their product. We wish them the very best!
