KENYA – Elloe, a conversational e-commerce business, has purchased rival Flo by Saada for an unknown amount in order to expand operations and enter new markets.
Owen Sakawa founded Elloe, a revolutionary conversational commerce platform driven by AI that enables SMEs to conduct online transactions on any messaging network.
Elloe will be able to accelerate its next stage of business growth as a result of the acquisition by expanding operations for its corporate clients and expanding its reach beyond its current operations in Kenya and the Philippines.
Following the acquisition of Flo by Saada, whose team will now work alongside Elloe’s product and engineering team in Kenya, Elloe will also use Flo’s technology to add a bundled, AI-driven offering to its current messaging service portfolio. In April, Elloe raised US$1 million in pre-seed capital.
“The addition of Flo by Saada technology fits perfectly into Elloe’s strategy and is a natural extension of Elloe’s offerings. It transforms customer interactions from simple communications to conversations across the spectrum of customer engagement points,” Sakawa said.
“With our conversational commerce capabilities, we are meeting new and existing customer needs now and are positioned to continue to meet their evolving needs well into the future, providing businesses with embedded commerce capabilities to simplify the way they serve, connect with, and sell to their own customers from anywhere, on any channel.”
The technology behind Flo by Saada, which was introduced in 2019 by Gerishon Mwaniki, allows SMEs to create conversational commerce solutions and handle payments using USSD, programmable SMS, Voice (IVR), and WhatsApp Business.
Telkom Kenya, Quick Bus, Oxfam, and other businesses in retail, entertainment, hospitality, and travel are among the startup’s clients.
“We are excited to be joining the Elloe team. Combining our market-leading technologies presents an opportunity to create new, amazing customer experiences,” Gerishon Mwaniki, Flo by Saada’s founder, said.
According to Mwaniki, Flo by Saada was created with the goal of assisting businesses in adapting to the growing popularity of instant messaging as the go-to method of communication, both for staying in touch with loved ones and receiving prompt, attentive service from brands.
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