30/5/2019 – Salutat, headquartered at city-state Singapore announces the successful seed funding joined by early-stage venture fund 500 Startups, Singapore’s Expara Ventures and Impact Investment Exchange (IIX).
A graduate from Startupbootcamp Fintech 2019, Salutat leverages behavioral psychology and machine learning to create a customer service solution platform that automates and enhance digitized conversations with customers.
“Traditional lenders are under strain to deliver better service across more and more channels, despite their staff managing as many as 500 customers each. Salutat allows traditional lenders to fight off fintech lenders which are enticing customers away with better UX but often extremely high pricing,” said Mike Driver, co-founder, and CEO of Salutat.
Founded in 2018 by Mike Driver and Sam Upra, former IFC executive and Agoda alum respectively, the startup aims to address financial institutions’ struggle to provide coordinated and efficient communications to their clients.
Sam Upra, co-founder and CTO of Salutat, said: “Customers want service that is fast, on-demand, secure, and personalized the apps they use on a daily basis. This lowers barriers to entry and costs, compared to SMS or call centers. We help partners adapt to this world of customer service.”
To help leveling the playing field for lenders, Salutat boosts customer engagement via over-the-top (OTT) communication channels such as instant messengers Whatsapp and Line, instead of relying solely on call centers. The startup also helps financial institutions to reach out to more underserved entrepreneurs, especially women, by offering lower-interest loans and financial literacy training.
The psychology advisors on board include The University of New South Wales (UNSW) psychologist and neuroscientist Prof Joel Pearson, and Prof Michael Frese, a behavioral psychologist from the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Salutat currently has pilots in Thailand, Myanmar, Kenya, and Zimbabwe and is also in talks for partnerships in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
