When Nicolás Camhi, Matias Pérez Pefaur, and Diego Chahuán (pictured above, left to right) launched Vambe last year, they were building a CRM for debt collection. But despite gaining momentum, Vambe quickly realized that customers weren't as interested in its debt collection product as the WhatsApp AI agent it built to facilitate it.
“Our customers are already asking, 'When I go out with debt, can I ask AI to provide this person with 'x' product or 'x' service?” '' Camhi told TechCrunch. “It was a really cool experience to do that. It made us realize that we're not building a collection system, but a communication and engagement tool.”
The Santiago, Chile-based company will focus on these AI agents in March 2024 with the aim of helping small and medium-sized businesses automate customer communications and close sales on platforms such as WhatsApp. I changed direction to put .
Vambe's customers range from small family businesses, such as a carpet cleaner with five employees, to retail businesses with thousands of employees. Camhi said the company's annual recurring revenue (ARR) was about $20,000 just before the turnaround, but that number has skyrocketed since March, with Vambe posting $1 million in ARR in November. Finished.
To capitalize on this rapid growth, Vambe recently raised a $3.85 million seed round led by Brazil-based VC firm Monashees, with participation from Mexico-based investor Nazca and US-based M13. Procured. Camhi said his team sought out Nazca because 15% of Vambe's revenue currently comes from Mexico and the company wants to expand further in the country.
This round was M13’s first investment in a Latin American startup. Brent Muri, a partner at M13, told TechCrunch that the company started building its theory for the region two years ago, until meeting Vambe's team at the Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator earlier this year. He said he was unable to find the right company, team or investment terms.
Murri noted that M13 is bullish on Vambe's technology and illustrated his argument with an example. The team at the VC firm built a fake business and set up an AI agent using Vambe, and was impressed by how quickly they were able to do it.
“When I look at Latin American companies, I wonder what carbon copies they have of the United States,” Muri said. “At Vanbe, we found the opposite. There is nothing like it. We understand that sales and marketing AI agents in the US are very crowded, but Adoption, and consumer willingness to adopt AI products, is actually much higher. [in LatAm] than in the United States or other parts of the world. ”
The reason for this affinity for sales technology is because, unlike in the United States, business in Latin America is more conversational than transactional, Camhi said.
“It's kind of a cultural thing,” Kamhi says. “Here in Latin America, we really like to talk. People who run companies don't just engage and buy something directly from a web page. They try to reach out. They want someone to help them. They want to understand pricing. And all that communication is very difficult to scale. It’s a thing.”
Of course, Vambe isn't the only company building WhatsApp AI applications for Latin American businesses. For one, Ecuador-based Mercately builds the backend technology businesses need to communicate with and sell directly to customers through WhatsApp.
In the US, there are several companies building conversational AI agents for enterprises. Brett Taylor's Sierra recently raised $175 million in a round. Eleven Labs is another company that has raised more than $100 million in venture capital. Voiceflow is a small entrant that has raised over $39 million in VC.
Beyond its ambitions in Mexico, Vambe aims to serve Spanish-speaking companies in the United States, strengthen its team, and continue developing its technology.
“We're putting very advanced technology into the hands of companies that don't even know how to prompt,” Kamhi said. “They're actually increasing sales and reducing costs. I think that's very, very important.”