Established in 2018 by former INGO employees Dipesh Regmi and Sushant Rai, VoxCrow is a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) startup providing systematic digital communication solutions to companies to communicate better with customers in cost-effective and convenient manner. VoxCrow has developed VoIP-based technologies like Getdesk, Blazon and Frontdesk. The company currently employs 40-plus core team members and has served more than 70 companies till date. The company recently secured an investment pledge of Rs 10 million and bagged 'Customer Excellent Award' at CNIYEF Nepal StartUp Fest 2022 organised by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries Young Entrepreneurs Forum. Co-founder of Vox- Crow Rai spoke with Kiran Lama of The Himalayan Times about the scenario of start-ups, the company's journey, challenges, among others. Excerpts:
Why do you think our start-up ecosystem is still in its infancy?
If you look globally, the product development cycle is a long process. Once a product is developed, the company's first task is to launch the product, while seeking revenue comes later. But in Nepal, companies rush to launch their product without spending enough time in its development. Also, the companies here have to worry about making profit from early days as they don't have any financial backup to sustain the business. Thus, there is a void between the startups and investors in Nepal. On one hand, companies are unable to commit to a certain timeframe within which they will start making profit, and on the other, the investors want quick returns. Moreover, the market size by population and economy of Nepal is finite compared to other countries. There is a long history of start-up culture in western countries, even in India, compared to Nepal. Lastly, there are administrative hurdles here, especially in terms of registering the company. But things have been better since the government has been relatively stable after the Constitution was endorsed.
Do you think it's possible to see a Nepali start-up become a unicorn?
Definitely, if start-up companies get support from the government to grow on a global scale, I believe they can become unicorns in the future. The government policies aimed at promoting start-ups should not be just limited to paper. The government is gradually addressing the welfare of start-ups via its annual budget and plans and policies. This positive change needs to be accelerated.
Can you share the company's highs and lows?
We've had the opportunity to serve the biggest and some of the most demanding companies, such as Foodmandu, eSewa, Fonepay, which has inspired us to provide outstanding and quality services. We attribute our success to clients' feedback, their understanding and acceptance.
Likewise, slowly but steadily we've been able to communicate to every company that you need proper customer service. Even before we officially launched our company, some of our clients had inked the contract with us to manage their customer service.
As for the lows, the COVID pandemic really hurt our business as we lost several existing clients and many potential deals were cancelled. Our over-reliance on Nepal Telecom is also proving to be a challenge in expanding our services.
Apart from securing the funding commitment, how was the Startup Fest beneficial for you?
The fest has rekindled the excitement of the startup ecosystem that used to happen prior to COV- ID-pandemic. At the same time, the morale of the start-up companies got a major boost seeing overwhelming participation of the youth. Secondly, we got exposure, investment commitment, networking, recognition and also bagged the 'Customer Excellent Award' at the fest which further motivated our team.
How do you plan to spend the fund if the pledge is materialised?
We're planning to launch cloud-based customer service so that we can provide our services even to overseas companies. And we're also planning to solve the regional language barrier in the customer service through cloud.
Let's say, if a customer from Jumla called the call operator of an internet service provider based in Kathmandu, there could be a communication gap because the call operator may not be familiar with the language of the customer.
So if the service is based on cloud, they can hire someone from that region, transfer calls if the customers are from that area and monitor them from Kathmandu. Meanwhile, we're also planning to create 10,000-plus jobs in Nepal.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 13, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
