Tonmoy Basak Anjan
Co-Founder & CTO
engaze.ai

Pranto Biswas
Co-Founder & VP Engineering
engaze.ai

Golan Sakline Ratul
Co-Founder & CEO
engaze.ai

Nazrul Islam Anik
Co-Founder & COO
engaze.ai

(From Left to Right)

Interviewed by Susmita Bhatta, Team MBR

engaze.ai enables local online businesses to create mini-apps inside social media super apps like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram and to generate websites without any coding skills. It not only assists them in generating direct sales from multiple channels but also backs them with logistics support from pandago, REDX, Paperfly, and Delivery Tiger, online payment gateway integration, and data-driven marketing solutions. Team MBR was in a conversation with Team engaze.ai to learn about the inspirations and the vision behind engaze.ai.

Susmita Bhatta: engaze.ai, an artificial intelligence-driven system, assists f-commerce businesses in Bangladesh in automating their customer relationship management and ordering process. Would you please share with us how you came up with this innovative idea?

Team engaze.ai: Back in the middle of 2019, we began our adventure as a software development business with a keen interest in NLP and computer vision. Due to our skill in creating chatbots, we frequently receive requests from local restaurants to create one for them. Additionally, they were interested in developing a website or app for their eateries. However, the majority of them were unwilling to pay the high development costs for a flawless website or mobile application. In order to benefit them, combining chatbot and online order-taking functionalities, we sought to create a generic platform. We also gained several beta testers. The epidemic then broke out. Online sales significantly increased, and f-commerce engaze.ai enables local online businesses to create mini-apps inside social media super apps like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram and to generate websites without any coding skills. It not only assists them in generating direct sales from multiple channels but also backs them with logistics support from pandago, REDX, Paperfly, and Delivery Tiger, online payment gateway integration, and data-driven marketing solutions. Team MBR was in a conversation with Team engaze.ai to learn about the inspirations and the vision behind engaze.ai. 30 of 38 was a triumph. We discovered that our built platform could benefit not only the restaurant industry, but also the entire f-commerce and e-commerce space. Hence, engaze.ai was born. During the epidemic, we worked on engaze.ai, which we released the beta version in June of 2021. We now collaborate with more than 450 online businesses.

Susmita Bhatta: You are using a chatbot to answer the queries of numerous questions. Considering the uniqueness of the queries, how effective and efficient is your chatbot?

Team engaze.ai: We found it the most challenging part. It is simple to get answers to both important and basic questions. This area accounts for 70% of the whole query domain. engaze.ai performs very well in this domain with a 92% accuracy rate. Many customers still require the management’s or owner’s personal attention. Various complaints and questions about the characteristics of a certain product are the most challenging queries. Millions of items come in a variety of billions of specs. We are also attempting to automate that.

Susmita Bhatta: For many online businesses, logistics support is a crucial issue. How is engaze.ai supporting the online businesses in its portfolio in this regard?

Team engaze.ai: There are two distinct marching bands.

1. Delivering non-perishable goods to customers, i.e., online store owners.
2. Delivering perishable goods, i.e., restaurant and grocery store owners.

For our merchants, we must find solutions to both types of logistical issues. Therefore, to transport perishable goods, we collaborated with pandago from foodpanda.

For the delivery of non-perishable goods, we have teamed up with REDX, Paperfly, and Delivery Tiger. The merchants choose which delivery system they will use.

The procedure of integrating delivery partners has been greatly simplified. Merchants can now simply and effectively manage orders, payments, and deliveries by utilizing a single dashboard provided by engaze.ai. Our merchants deliver hundreds of items every day using these delivery partners. In recent days, we have been able to offer clients the fastest possible logistics solution with just one click.

Susmita Bhatta: engaze.ai has onboarded a good number of restaurants already. How does engaze.ai differentiate itself from conventional food delivery apps?

Team engaze.ai: Well, we face this question a lot. The thing is, engaze.ai is neither a marketplace similar to foodpanda or Daraz nor a substitute for these marketplaces. It is a tool to strengthen a business’s D2C presence online. The key value-adding feature of engaze.ai is that it helps entrepreneurs build a viable operational plan for their businesses by making order management, payment, and deliveries easier and developing a strong brand identity.

Susmita Bhatta: Due to the nature of business, engaze.ai has an enormous opportunity to expand beyond the country’s border. How is engaze.ai planning to grow in the upcoming days?

Team engaze.ai: We already have a few clients from abroad. Actually, every single one of them is Bangladeshi and is a member of our family and friends. We are doing tests within their companies. If there is no legal concern, we can extend our business to any part of the world within a month because of the modularity of our business model. The local market has a large and untapped opportunity, and for the year 2022, we want to grow with the local market only. In the second quarter of 2023, we will begin to focus on the international market.

Susmita Bhatta: The COVID-19 pandemic boosted the growth of e-commerce and f-commerce businesses significantly. How did it impact the growth of engaze.ai in turn?

Team engaze.ai: Actually, engaze.ai was born from observing this growth. The pandemic has taught business owners to go completely online. We launched engaze.ai in June 2021. There was a lockdown after that too. We had a huge growth curve then. And, after the pandemic, the growth is good as well. Entrepreneurs are well aware now.

Susmita Bhatta: engaze.ai is mostly working with restaurants or businesses that deal with products. However, it has the capability to break into the service industry to provide online customer care service from the Facebook pages of service businesses. Does engaze.ai have any plans to explore the service industry in the near future?

Team engaze.ai: We do, in fact, have plans for this. We were asked by a car rental firm if they could rent cars using engaze.ai. We have given that business the ability to do so with a few changes. Another time, a charity asked us whether they might use engaze.ai to collect donations. They can do it, of course. Soon, we will perfectly enable service providers to make use of engaze.ai.