Say hello to your customers on WhatsApp

charles the "conversational commerce" tool launches in Berlin today with €1 million in funding. The software enables merchants and consumer brands to sell products via WhatsApp and other chat apps. 

charles helps you integrate your existing ecommerce and chatbot tools into one interface, where all messaging and chat apps are also integrated. Within conversational commerce, customers can ask questions, discover products, order and re-order, track shipping, get return labels and personalized notifications about deals.

Similar to Shopify starting as a snowboard shop, the idea for the software sprang from starting a clothing brand that sells exclusively via WhatsApp.

Co-founder, Artjem Weissbeck, said over 250 of the first 1,000 buyers bought again within a month: "Many brands approached us and asked which software we are using. We recognized the massive demand in the B2B market and decided to pivot into building the software ourselves.”

The startup's founders and investors alike believe that conversational commerce “may become the biggest disruptor for brands since the rise of ecommerce and social media.”

Investors include business angels such as Tarek Müller CEO AboutYou and Alexander Graf, CEO Spryker Systems, Kassenzone.