RFPIO to double headcount in one-yr as demand grows

Coimbatore: RFPIO Inc, which has a patented cloud-based proposal management platform that simplifies and automates the ‘Requests for Proposal’ (RFP) process to make it easier for teams to collaborate quickly to complete proposals on schedule and win business, is planning to double its headcount in the next 12 months due to growing demand for its services.
The company, which now employs close to 40 persons in the city, has moved to a larger office. RFPIO, which counts LinkedIn and Siemens among its clients, had secured a ‘Series A’ funding of $25 million (around Rs 175 crore) from US-based K1 Investment Management in July 2018.
“RFPIO plans to scale up the entire business. As the Coimbatore and American teams grow, the focus will be on establishing a solid middle management team,” the company said.
“Global expansion is happening as well, and the company is looking at options for another RFPIO office to serve their second largest customer base in Europe,” it said.
“With customers currently in over 100 different countries, we intend to expand our user base from 25,000 to over 1,00,000 by the end of 2020. We are primarily looking forward to expanding to the SEAC (South-East Asia) and APAC (Asia-Pacific) regions for which we will be making Coimbatore as a worldwide hub for sales and development.” said Ganesh Shankar, CEO, RFPIO Inc.
“Our sales are currently concentrated in the United States. But we intend to equalise our sales across the globe by aggressively expanding to the SEAC and the APAC regions with Coimbatore as the hub,” he stated.
RFPIO has an office in Portland, Oregon for sales in the US.
“Responding to RFPs can be a very painful process. RFPs can be many pages long with multiple sections and typically involve coordination of multiple teams and individuals on each side of the proposal. It often feels like an exam with no clear answers or guidance. No one likes that,” Shankar noted.
RFPIO uses artificial intelligence (AI) in its RFP response software. “Leveraging AI and machine learning means organisations can gain a huge competitive advantage by improving their accuracy, saving time and creating better responses to RFPs to ultimately increase win rates and revenue,” Shankar stated.
“In light of today’s ever-increasing competition and time constraints, our platform learns from past responses and recommends the best content for new questions,” said Manish Bafna, vice president, technology, RFPIO India. “It also delivers a dashboard that provides visibility into the RFP process,” he said.