Berlin Fintech Startup Raises $20 Million From Salesforce Ventures

• Berlin-based Charles has raised $20 million in Series A funding from Salesforce Ventures.
• The startup offers “conversational commerce,” which enables brands to sell via WhatsApp.
• Check out the 9-slide pitch deck Charles used to raise the fresh funds below.

A startup that enables companies to sell products and services through WhatsApp and other chat apps has raised $20 million from Salesforce Ventures.

Founded in 2020, Berlin-based Charles uses what it calls “conversational commerce” to target customers where they interact with friends and family. The company focuses on direct to consumer brands at present, but wants to expand to corporate customers in the future.

Charles’ technology enables companies to market to customers, respond to consumer inquiries and close sales through various chat platforms. The start-up claims that 90% of its advertising material is opened by customers, significantly higher than the opening rate associated with newsletters delivered via e-mail.

“We are humbled to raise given the current market conditions, this round in terms of size is comparable to the rounds we saw last year, which shows the faith investors have in us, plus our growth over the last two years,” Charles co-founder Andreas Tussing told Insider.

Charles effectively connects chat app APIs to customer relationship management platforms like Shopify, allowing users to efficiently start and complete a purchase in one chat, without ever leaving the site. The startup’s co-founders told Insider that it aimed to combine the best of traditional in-person retail with the ease and speed of e-commerce through the platform.

The company makes money by charging brands a small fee per month to cover Charles’ costs, while taking a cut based on the number of conversions.

“Conversational commerce is very natural in Latin America and Southeast Asia, but not in Europe because many people had the luxury of growing up with a desktop computer,” Artjem Weissbeck, Charles CEO, told Insider. “Unlike email, you have a high open rate with chat because there is a high level of trust that a consumer has in a brand to give up their number.”

Half of Brazilians already buy goods and services via WhatsApp while WeChat did $400 billion in transactions in China last year, the company added.

Previously backed by Accel and HV Capital, Charles raised Series A funding as it looks to expand into new countries. The fresh funds will also go towards tripling the number of employees to 62 over the next 18 months.

Check out Charles’ pitch deck below: