Knowlarity Communications and Exotel plans to move to Southeast to grow
Knowlarity Communications and Exotel plans to move to Southeast to grow

The battle for market share between cloud telephony startups Knowlarity Communications and Exotel is moving to Southeast Asia, with both the companies’ targetting the growing startup ecosystem in the region.

Cloud telephony essentially replaces a company's voice-calling operations from telecom providers with voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP), giving companies more control over their communication systems.

Shivakumar Ganesan, Chief Executive, Exotel, said, "There is a lot of startup activity in the Southeast Asian market, resulting in demand for cloud telephony solutions. 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 percent 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 announced an investment of USD10 million over two years for its Southeast Asia expansion. Delhi-based Knowlarity, which began operations in 2009, already has a presence in Southeast Asia, with a significant portion of its revenue coming from the region, said CEO Ambarish Gupta.

Gupta said, "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."

The company, which registered revenue of Rs 51.8 crore in fiscal 2016, operates from its Singapore headquarters and has established offices in the Philippines and Dubai as well.

Knowlarity in November raised USD20 million in funding led by Delta Partners Capital. Other domestic cloud telephone companies, too, are venturing into mature overseas markets.

Hyderabad-based Ozonetel, which caters to mid-sized to large enterprises, recently started operations in the US, where it will target small and medium businesses, CEO Murthy Chintalapati said.

 
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