Mobile first engagements to be omni-channel but empathetic
Orange Ventures has raised €20 million from Expedition Capital to fund Batch, one of the new generation of customer relationship specialists. The Paris-based start-up has an ambitious plan to take customer interaction to a deeper level and help telcos keep their subscribers happy and lower the rate of defections.
The funds will be used to expand beyond its native France and charm every mobile operator’s customers in Germany and the UK, covering Europe’s three biggest markets initially. The customer engager and push notifier plans to recruit 170 staff for new offices in Marseille, London and Berlin.
CSPs need to work on relationships
Batch was founded by Simon Dawlat and Antoine Guénard in 2015 when they saw that existing customer relationship management systems (CRM) were crude and heavy handed and more akin to customer stalking. Co-founder Dawlat says it’s time for a culture change and a light touch is the order of the day instead of the IT industry’s aggressive culture. Batch’s ‘mobile first’ systems will be much more subtle and its company culture is seen as a major asset to be invested in.
“This fundraising will allow us to focus on our corporate culture, because people are at the centre of our priorities and represent the base of our development,” said Dawlat. The mobile-first CRM system takes an ‘holistic vision’ of the customer and their journey, so that omnichannel strategies can be implemented, according to Batch.
Mobile telephony is empathy
Batch’s priority is to invest in employee-related projects such as management and financial performance transparency, decision-making processes, working from home with emphasis on gender equality and parenthood.
The start-up aims to have 150 employees by the end of 2022 and 250 employees by 2023. Funds will also be used to strengthen and optimise its technology, while boosting its development and international growth. It currently has 70 employees in Paris and Lyon supporting 500 customers, 30 per cent of whom are in the UK and Germany.
“Batch has managed to position itself as the leader on its domestic market and to develop a corporate culture focused on its employees’ developments,” said Jérôme Berger, president and managing partner of Orange Ventures.
Orange Ventures has €350 million in funds for investments in ‘innovative start-ups’.