With a solution that brings together the basic tools to “make life easier” for a small business or self-employed professional, Chilean startup AgendaPro has secured $3.7 million in a funding round led by Chilean venture capital firm Kayyak Ventures. Also participating in the round were funds TMT Investments, Fen Ventures, Cathexis Ventures and SCM Advisors, as well as angel investors.
Founded in 2014 by Julio Guzmán, AgendaPro offers a set of management and financial services for small entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals, such as beauty salons, barbershops, gyms, small businesses or medical offices, among others.
Through the platform, the startup‘s clients have access to an online scheduling tool that can be linked to social networks, like Whatsapp, or to a website, through which customers can schedule with the professional of their choice, automatically receiving appointment reminders.
AgendaPro also offers a CRM system to consolidate all customer information in a single database; email marketing; and features focused on financial management, such as online payment processing. The platform also provides marketing tools, such as the generation of automatic campaigns for customer acquisition.
The newly injected capital will be invested in the expansion, with a special focus on Mexico, and to increase the range of services available on the platform. “Our goal is to democratize access to technology and financial services to small business owners in the region and become the leading platform in Latin America in this segment,” said Guzmán. “In the near future, we want to boost financial businesses by providing credit and access to credit,” he added.
According to AgendaPro, the pandemic accelerated the digitization of small businesses, making it essential to have a platform to manage business remotely, and boosted the growth of the startup, which today serves more than 3,700 customers in countries like Chile, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. The goal is to reach Brazil by the end of the year.
Evelyn Von Bischhoffshausen, partner at Kayyak Ventures, said the venture capital manager decided to bet on AgendaPro because the startup meets a growing and still underserved demand in Latin America: digitization of small and medium-sized businesses.
“The impact that software like AgendaPro generates in productivity and sales is very significant, and we also see a huge potential for long-term value in the development of other tools, such as payment processing and marketing tools,” she said.
