Korawad Chearavanont

Korawad Chearavanont (Thai: กรวัฒน์ เจียรวนนท์) is a Thai entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Eko, a communications app based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Korawad Chearavanont
กรวัฒน์ เจียรวนนท์
EducationThe Lawrenceville School
Columbia University
OccupationInternet entrepreneur
Known forFounding Eko Communications
TitleCEO of Eko
RelativesSuphachai Chearavanont (father)
Dhanin Chearavanont (grandfather)
FamilyChearavanont family

Biography

Chearavanont is the son of Suphachai Chearavanont, CEO of Charoen Pokphand Group, Thailand's largest private company where his grandfather Dhanin Chearavanont currently serves as senior chairman.[1] He was educated at the Lawrenceville School and Columbia University for two years, where he was a history major, before dropping out in 2015 to pursue a career in entrepreneurship.[2][3]

Eko Communications

Chearavanont founded Eko Communications as a mobile chat app in spring 2012, when he was 17 in his boarding school dorm in New Jersey and took a year off after high school to build his startup.[1][4] Upon entering college, however, he wanted to focus on his startup full-time so he made a deal with his family that he could quit college if he raised $5 million from major venture capitals.[4] In 2014, he secured $1 million seed funding from 500 Startups.[5] A year later, he received $5.7 million funding from Shanghai-based Gobi Ventures, the second-largest such funding for a Thai venture.[6] Having met the terms, Chearavanont put Columbia on hold in order to concentrate on his start-up full-time. In 2017, he raised $1 million from Japanese trading house Itochu.[7] In November 2018, he raised $20 million in B round funding from Sinar Mas Digital Ventures, the venture capital unit of the Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Group, increasing the total funding to $28.7 million.[8]

In founding Eko, Chearavanont hopes to fill gaps in the enterprise collaboration market left by tech giants such as Slack, Microsoft, and Facebook by accommodating more users simultaneously in a group chat and by focusing on the operational and logistical aspects of the company as opposed to solely workplace chats and collaboration.[1][4] Furthermore, his business taps into the growing mobile market in Asia, whereas major tech firms are more attuned to the habits of Americans and Westerners in which desktops and laptops play a bigger role.[9] Since its founding, Eko signed on notable firms such as Bangkok Bank, Thanachart Bank, BEC-TERO, telecommunications firms True Corporation and Telekom Malaysia, and non-profit One Young World as clients, with five million active users across 100 enterprise clients throughout Asia, Europe, North America.[4][8][10][11] Most recently, his business has saw a 200% surge in revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic as demand for remote work technologies has boomed.[12] In June 2020, his company acquired a local AI chatbot firm, ConvoLab, and formed a new parent firm as part of its digital, and global expansion plan.[11]

In 2016, he was listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia under the Enterprise Tech category.[13]

References
  1. Nam, Suzy. "Thailand Billionaire Heir's Tech Startup Closes $20M Fundraising Led By Indonesia's 2nd Wealthiest Family". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  2. "Korawad Chearavanont '12 Provides "an App for That"". Lawrenceville School. 2015-11-23. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  3. "Welcome to the real world". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  4. "Thai tycoon's grandson takes on Slack and Facebook in work chat". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  5. Huang, Elaine. "[Update] Workplace chat app Eko secures US$1M from 500 Startups and others". e27. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  6. Phoosuphanusorn, Srisamorn (August 28, 2015). "Office chat app developer Eko gets $5.7m funding". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  7. "Itochu invests in Eko, brainchild of CP Group heir". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  8. "Workplace app Eko nets $20m funding from SMDV, AirAsia, and others". Tech In Asia. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  9. "Eko chat app blends corporate email with mobile messaging". Digital News Asia. 2015-10-20. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  10. Oster, Shai. "Billionaire's Dropout Grandson Wants to Kill Work E-mail". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  11. "Thai billionaire heir's Eko announces acquisition, new parent firm". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  12. "Thai billionaire heir's startup Amity flourishes amid pandemic". Reuters. 2020-06-30. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  13. "Korawad Chearavanont". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
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