Exotel & Knowlarity, Cloud Telephony players tap Southeast Asia Markets

Cloud telephony basically replaces a company’s voice-calling operations from telecom providers with voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP), providing companies more control over their communication systems.
“There is a lot of startup activity in the Southeast Asian market, resulting in demand for cloud telephony solutions,“ said Shivakumar Ganesan, chief executive of Exotel. “The market conditions also being similar to India will be an added advantage.“
Expansion into Southeast Asia, he said, is a priority for Exotel, which registered a 161% increase in revenue to Rs 27.8 crore in fiscal 2016. The Bengaluru-based company, which began operations in late 2011, counts new-age companies including Ola, Flipkart and Quikr among clients.
Exotel last year declared an investment of $10 million over two years for its idea of Southeast Asia expansion.
Delhi-based Knowlarity, which started operations in 2009, already has its name in Southeast Asia, with a significant portion of its revenue coming from the region, informed CEO Ambarish Gupta.
“While India remains the largest revenue-generating market for us, we believe that revenue from Southeast Asia and the Middle East will surpass our India revenue in a year,“ Gupta told.
The company, which registered revenue of Rs 51.8 crore in fiscal 2016, functions from its Singapore headquarters and has established offices in the Philippines and Dubai as well. Knowlarity in November raised $20 million in funding led by Delta Partners Capital.