AI startup Zoca raises $6 million from Accel, Elevation Capital, others
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Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Zoca on Wednesday announced that it has raised $6 million in a funding round led by Accel , with participation from GTMfund Elevation Capital and Better Capital Founded in 2024 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Ashish Verma and Robin Chauhan, the platform helps hyperlocal businesses like salons, spas, florists, petcare, i.e. anyone servicing location-based audiences, with their marketing needs through a string of AI agents. It is available in US as of now."Zoca's AI agents manage the entire growth funnel for these businesses: identifying demand, optimising their discovery on Google Search, converting leads and re-engaging the customers," Verma, cofounder and chief executive officer, told ET.The startup will use the funding to implement its go-to-market strategy in the US and deploy more AI agents. "We will build so that Zoca is not just a growth platform, but an operating system for any local business," Verma said. The company has a 54-member team based in Bengaluru, and with this fundraise, it plans to hire more hands in the US as well.The agents optimise local search rankings, send rebooking messages and produce social media content for these businesses. They have also launched agents for paid ads and social media management. These agents are trained on a variety of large language models (LLMs), including Llama and ChatGPT. The startup primarily works with beauty and wellness businesses for now, and hopes to get into the pet care segment.Since its inception, Zoca said it has worked with over 1,000 local beauty and wellness businesses to generate over $10 million in revenue and book more than 120,000 appointments. Over the next 12-18 months, the startup is looking to increase its revenue tenfold, Verma said."In India, people end up calling businesses to build trust. In the US, they go to the website to gauge authenticity. On Google Maps, there are three options: call a business, get directions, and go to their website. In the US, 70% of the traffic on that page chooses the website option. This is where we found opportunity," Verma said.
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