Jakarta-based business directory platform Qontak today announced they have received an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Indonusa Dwitama with angel investors from the Angel Investment Network Indonesia (ANGIN).
The company plans to use the funding to grow its user base, to expand technology and machine learning, and to build a database.
According to Qontak Founder Brendan Rakphongphairoj, a demand for a solution is the main reason why the investors are drawn to invest in the company.
“I believe the main reasons are related to the problem that we are trying to solve. The fact that there needs to be a solution to the lack of transparency and accuracy in business contact and company data in Southeast Asia,” he wrote in an e-mail to e27.
Qontak is currently headquartered out of Indonusa’s office where it rents a coworking space. It also receives strategic guidance and advice in both business and technical aspects of running a startup.
Qontak aims to accelerate growth by providing “the most accurate and actionable” B2B contact and company information across Asia.
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The platform strictly allows only a business community with business emails (via Google Apps for Business, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Outlook) to join and contribute to its database for free. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to mine company data and categorise industries, employee sizes, descriptions, type and other relevant tags.
“The fundamental problem that sales professionals are facing is not only trying to reach the right person, but also timing the sale so that it meets a need, when it is needed,” according to a press statement from the company.
“While solutions to find people exist, such as LinkedIn, creating a recurring system where you can build your own contact and business database with easy, flexible and systematically timed follow up communication is what Qontak enables,” it also stated.
Qontak currently works with 50 companies, and is aiming to secure over 500 companies by end of 2016.
The company combines both online and offline marketing strategies ranging from partnerships via freemium option, telemarketing/outreach, social media ads, content production, attendances at events, and endorsements by sales/marketing personalities.
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The Qontak team is made of seven computer scientists and three marketing professionals.
Founder Rakphongphairoj graduated from Columbia University. Prior to founding Qontak, he worked at investment consulting firm Cambridge Associates and was also a writer at Indonesian English language media Jakarta Globe. He had also founded a premium food distribution service in the country.