Korawad Chearavanont

Korawad Chearavanont (Thai: กรวัฒน์ เจียรวนนท์) is a Thai entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Amity, formerly known as Eko, an enterprise communications app headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand.[1]

Korawad Chearavanont
กรวัฒน์ เจียรวนนท์
EducationThe Lawrenceville School
Columbia University
OccupationInternet entrepreneur
Known forFounding Amity (previously Eko Communications)
TitleCEO of Amity
RelativesSuphachai Chearavanont (father)
Busadee Chearavanont (mother)
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. He was educated at the Lawrenceville School and Columbia University for two years, where he was a history major, before leaving in 2015 to pursue a career in entrepreneurship.[2][3]

Amity

In 2012, Chearavanont founded Amity (previously known as Eko Communications) as a mobile chat app, taking a year off from boarding school to do so.[1][4] After living in Princeton, NJ during a gap year and wanting to focus on Amity, Chearavanont made a deal with his family that he could quit college if he raised at least $5 million for his company, which he was able to do after initially raising a seed round from Tigerlabs Ventures which was quickly followed by a Series A funding through investors such as 500 Startups, Gobi Ventures, and Itochu.[4][5][6] The Series B funding round led by Sinar Mas Digital Ventures raised $20 million, with investors such as Air Asia’s digital investment fund and EV Growth, giving a total amount of $28.7 million by 2019.[7]

Chearavanont stated that the enterprise collaboration market “is really open right now” when discussing the many competitors like Slack, Microsoft, and Facebook.[4][8]

Notable clients of Amity include companies such as Bangkok Bank, Thanachart Bank, BEC-TERO, True Corporation, and Telekom Malaysia. There are currently approximately five million active users across Asia, Europe, and North America.[4][7]

In June 2020, Amity acquired local AI chatbot firm, ConvoLab, and formed a new parent firm, changing its name from Eko to Amity, as part of its expansion plans.[9][10]

Accolades

In 2016, Chearavanont was listed on "Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia" under the Enterprise Tech category.[11]

References
  1. Nam, Suzy. "Thailand Billionaire Heir's Tech Startup Closes $20M Fundraising Led By Indonesia's 2nd Wealthiest Family". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  2. "Korawad Chearavanont '12 Provides 'an App for That' ". Lawrenceville School. 2015-11-23. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  3. Srisamorn, Phoosuphanusorn (26 October 2015). "Welcome to the real world". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  4. Koyanagi, Ken (19 July 2019). "Thai tycoon's grandson takes on Slack and Facebook in work chat". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  5. Ono, Yukako. "Itochu invests in Eko, brainchild of CP Group heir". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  6. Phoosuphanusorn, Srisamorn (28 August 2015). "Office chat app developer Eko gets $5.7m funding". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  7. Ellis, Jack (27 November 2018). "Workplace app Eko nets $20m funding from SMDV, AirAsia, and others". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  8. Oster, Shai (9 October 2015). "Billionaire's Dropout Grandson Wants to Kill Work E-mail". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  9. Yu, Doris (30 June 2020). "Thai billionaire heir's Eko announces acquisition, new parent firm". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  10. Setboonsarng, Chayut (2020-06-30). "Thai billionaire heir's startup Amity flourishes amid pandemic". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  11. "Korawad Chearavanont". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
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