Startup Circle: How is EnableX integrating real-time communication into applications and websites?

Digital investments are accelerating during the COVID economy. Businesses are prioritizing the development of applications powered by real-time, intelligent processing in the cloud. EnableX is a communication platform for integrating real-time communication into applications and websites.

The scalable and secure global platform provides developers and service providers with powerful APIs to create video, voice and messaging conversations with ease. From one-to-one chats to large scale broadcasts, EnableX makes communications more flexible and personal, helping enterprises stay ahead in the digital world. Read Mr Pankaj Gupta, CEO and Founder, EnableX talk about how the startup has scaled its operations.

What is EnableX about? Tell us about the team

EnableX is a cloud-based communications platform helping businesses and developers to quickly and easily integrate real-time communication capabilities into mobile applications and communication workflows. From feature-rich Video and Voice APIs to SMS, Chat, and Number APIs, we are one of the few players in Asia-pacific offering a full-stack of communication capabilities with all the necessary toolkits to develop innovative and engaging communication experience. Built on a carrier-grade platform, EnableX helps build smarter and meaningful communication at every touchpoint across a customer lifecycle.

We have also added a whole new set of Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities to the platform including facial analysis and emotion recognition to develop cutting-edge solutions across industries and domains globally. We are also uniquely positioned in the market as one of the few global players with a complete suite of services ranging from Communication Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) to Video Communication Software-as-a-Service.

The founding team comes with very strong business and technology backgrounds and has built global businesses and products for large-scale organizations. Backed by an advisory board comprising global entrepreneurs and leaders, EnableX has the right group to lead it into the “new world” and make a mark in the Cloud Communication Industry by setting new benchmarks.

We now have a strong team of more than 40 full-time engineering, marketing & sales professionals with extensive experience of working in Telecoms & IT companies globally. With our global headquarter in Singapore, our Engineering teams operate in Delhi/NCR and Bangalore, and the Sales teams in Singapore, India and Japan.

How did you come up with the idea?

Before EnableX, I was the MD of Arkadin India – a joint venture between ConferIndia, a conferencing services company I founded in 2004 & Arkadin – a global leader in collaboration services which subsequently became part of the NTT Group, Japan. When I was running Arkadin in India, I realized that the adoption of remote communication was increasing and with the world becoming flat, the need for seamless ways to communicate and connect across functions and services was sure to explode.

Businesses relied on a wide array of communication technologies to enable interaction and collaboration among users, customers, partners, suppliers, and employees. But there were no or very few solutions that integrated communication directly into the context of any website or mobile application for a seamless end-to-end in-app conversation.  If one wanted to have a remote class, everyone would try to get on standalone products such as Skype or a WebEx session because they didn’t have that capability within their own campus applications.

Most of the enterprise-grade Communication services are sold as on-premise solutions. These on-premise legacy services or even cloud-based Unified Communicating as a Service (UcaaS) were often siloed and managed independently from the rest of the business applications and services within the organization. They are expensive, inflexible, and not easily customizable to meet the unique needs of each organization.

If you look at it from the consumer view, the digital revolution has transformed the way they behave and interact. Today, customers expect immediate access to information and tools wherever they are, at one single tap of a device. They want to be engaged on their preferred communication channel (voice, video, messaging, SMS and more). These communication features need to be tightly and seamlessly integrated into the workflow which the current communication systems lack.

The ever-evolving consumer expectation is causing businesses to think of new ways to improve customer experience (CX) and provide differentiated services. One way is to create it in-house by building real-time communication within their solution/applications. However, many organisations lack the skills and technical know-how to develop video and voice communications. Furthermore, building a communication platform is a heavy investment.

With this background, we took the plunge to build the next-generation Communication Platform as a Service! A platform that would ‘Enable’ developers and product companies to embed communication capabilities within their applications and solutions without the need to invest in costly proprietary hardware.

What is the importance of cloud-based communication?

There are numerous benefits of cloud communication for an organization. Perhaps the most important one is that it easily and rapidly adds new communication channels directly to the applications without the need to or build backend infrastructure. This not only saves huge cost but it also allows rapid scaling of applications in a cost-efficient manner similar to other cloud services. Offered on a pay-as-you-use service, businesses only need to pay for what they use, enabling them with the flexibility they need.

Contrary to on-premise legacy communication systems that are often siloed and independently supported from the rest of the business applications and services within the organization, cloud-based communication uniqueness is in its ability to offer In-app experience. With communications APIs, businesses can integrate communication within their very own customer-fronting apps or sites.

Cloud-based communication platforms allow for interactions over multiple communication channels (voice, video, messaging and other collaborative tools). As a result, companies can drive omnichannel conversations to engage with customers to stay relevant in current times and acclimatize to the future of communications.

This has gained immense significance particularly as today’s digital-native customers demand personalised and multi-channel engagements, setting the bar high for companies. This is further powered by Video Communications gaining grounds globally because of COVID-19. From businesses to education to healthcare, everyone is unleashing the potential of this powerful tool to ensure survival and success in today’s day and age. Interestingly, this isn’t a makeshift transition. Video Communication is here to stay, resulting in the growing adoption of communication APIs worldwide.

Is it secure?

EnableX provides AES256 encryption for all voice, video and signalling traffic. It comes with HTTPS authentication and secures RTP for media transportation. EnableX platform is GDPR, HIPAA compliant as well as ISO 27001 Certified, which means that it meets the data privacy and confidentiality requirements for any business.

What is your business/market growth?

We’ve been seeing 100% growth quarter-over-quarter in the last few months and are now generating good revenues with a growing number of paying customers for our platform as well as professional services. The number of developers on our platform has recently crossed 5,000 and we see the rate of growth only increasing as we further scale up our sales and marketing efforts in other geographies including South East Asia, Europe, and North America over the next few months.

The pandemic has affected every sector. How are you coping?

Notably, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pushed businesses to work remotely and think digital. As a result, organisations started to increasingly invest in remote working technologies and infrastructure ranging from Video Conferencing and collaborative software to project and time management tools to adding security mechanisms to ensure a seamless transition to ‘Work-from-Home’ so that business continues as usual.  Businesses are embracing omnichannel digital communications now more than ever. In times like these, delivering an excellent digital customer experience has become all the more important and companies are now increasingly looking into ways for smart personalization, emotional engagements, and much more.

This has pushed many businesses to turn to CPaaS providers like us. Providing comprehensive communication channels – voice, video, visit, SMS, and other collaborative tools – we are remarkably positioned to help organizations rapidly and effectively create an omnichannel experience in the essential APIs. With the market developing progressively, we proceed to advance and offer cutting-edge solutions to our clients. One of our recently launched solutions-  ‘FaceAI’ is yet another disruptive offering harnessing the power of AI with live video to further enhance the customer experience. Moreover, we are supporting multiple deployment options to fit businesses’ goals, budget, security and compliance needs.

What are your Post-Covid plans?

There are some key trends that we have witnessed this year which have directly or indirectly shaped our business plans. First, there has been a huge adoption and acceptance of video conferencing as an alternative to face-to-face meetings across industries. Second, consumer expectations have drastically changed during this period. Today’s consumers demand an omnichannel experience where they have the flexibility to communicate on their preferred channel – voice, video, email, messaging, etc. on any device. As a result of which, we are seeing a huge demand for communication APIs that allow for this flexibility.

With the above in mind, we will focus on enhancing our communication APIs (especially video API) to help companies deliver unique value and improve CX excellence. Moreover, taking customer experience to a whole new high, our new set of improved enhancements include quality, advanced features, advanced analytics, Visual flow builder for orchestration and automation, etc. Hereon, we are committed to innovate and bring next-generation communication capabilities to businesses across the globe, helping them stay ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving world.

How is EnableX.io Funded?

The venture has been bootstrapped by me from the beginning.  Late last year, we raised a small round of funding from a group of Angel Investors from France, Singapore, Japan and India. During the three-year journey so far, we have invested these funds heavily in technology and product development. We are generating revenues now which we are reinvesting back into the business to further fuel our business growth in line with our current strategic plans.