Cali Telephony Startup WeKall Makes Big Splash At Customer Experience Summit In Cartagena

At this year’s Customer Experience Summit in Cartagena, organized by industry association Bpro, international companies from around the world were well represented; both outsourcing firms and technology providers. Domestically, there were plenty of firms from Bogotá and Medellín, but one Cali-based telephony startup, WeKall, made a big splash as a major sponsor of the event.

Finance Colombia Executive Editor Loren Moss spoke with WeKall’s Fabian Saavedra to learn more about the firm’s solution.

 Finance Colombia: I’m here with Fabian Saavedra of WeKall. We’re here at the 20th annual Customer Experience Summit which is the annual event put on by Bpro, the industry association for BPOs and the contact center industry here in Colombia. So, you’re with a company called WeKall. WeKall is based in Cali right? Tell me about WeKall. What is your product?

Fabian Saavedra Well, we started our operation two years ago. Basically we had all our operations, our software factory in Cali, Colombia. We are pretty focused in cloud. We had PBX telephony previously into the cloud and we had contact centers as well. Fully Amazon Web Services software based, fully cloud, and basically we can launch an operation just in 10 days. We can launch 10,000 seats running our operations using our software.

Finance Colombia: What specifically does the software do?

Fabian Saavedra For example, just for a company that needs a PBS, like, regular PBX, big boxes, all boxes that you have in the front desk in your offices and your company. Basically we change all that stuff, and we put everything in the cloud. And now, for example, the people are connected into the office with a regular phone, right? We can use our mobile or iPads, tablets, laptops and you can choose your clients or your suppliers, whatever, that are still in your office.

You call to the office, but you can be here in Cartagena, ring your extension number, and basically that’s it.  We generate the opportunity for every company to be everywhere, in every moment, as you create process transformation, digital transformation, of your company. Because now you can be for your clients and for your employees wherever they need it, in the moment that you need it.

Finance Colombia: So, it’s next generation contact center telephony software. A cloud-based PBX.

Fabian Saavedra That’s right.

Finance Colombia: So, tell me about the company itself. How old is the company? Who started it? How big are you? Tell me about WeKall as a company and the people behind the company.

Fabian Saavedra Basically we are a startup. We began operations two and a half years ago. We are almost 100 employees. Basically we are growing— for example, the last five months we grew at around 10% per month. Actually, we already had some investors from England and investors from Costa Rica as well.

Finance Colombia: Okay, so, you guys are beyond the seed stage, you guys are already well on your way. Now, we’re here in Cartagena at the Customer Experience Summit, you are a new sponsor. Why did you decide to participate in this event and how has it been for you so far?

Fabian Saavedra Yeah, I think that we are disrupting, making us one of the first startups here in this event. And we are one of the biggest sponsors as well because we want to grow, and we want to accelerate our growth, and for that we need to invest and put our brand… basically we are growing in a disruptive way because we are very aggressive as well.

Finance Colombia: What’s your website? How can people contact you?

Fabian Saavedra https://wekall.co/

Finance Colombia: OK, WeKall spelled with a ‘K’.

Fabian Saavedra That’s right.

Finance Colombia: It’s really cool because we see a lot of businesses from Medellín and a lot of businesses from Bogotá, so it’s always cool when we see the Caleños showing up and doing their part as well.

Fabian Saavedra We are the biggest startup in Cali and we expect…really, I feel from my heart that we want to create an ecosystem in a region that most, many other startups are generated in Cali. My…really, my passion and my purpose is to generate employees.

Above photo: WeKall’s Fabian Saavedra and Felipe Sanchez at the 2022 Customer Experience Summit in Cartagena (photo: Loren Moss)