Yocale.ai Inc. (CSE:YAI) is bringing artificial intelligence to the day-to-day challenges facing appointment-based businesses, with an initial focus on the beauty and wellness industry.
In this episode of The Capital Compass, CEO Aydin Asli joins Ricki Lee to discuss the newly listed company’s platform, management team and strategy for scaling the business following its debut on the Canadian Securities Exchange.
This article is being disseminated on behalf of Yocale.ai, a third-party issuer, and is intended for informational purposes only.
Yocale.ai’s platform is designed to help service-based businesses manage the customer journey, from acquisition and appointments through to retention and growth. Asli explains that AI is embedded throughout the platform, allowing business data to be turned into actionable insights while reducing the administrative workload placed on entrepreneurs.
The company is now looking to accelerate its growth following a C$1.74 million oversubscribed private placement. Its strategy includes further developing its offering for the beauty and wellness sector while pursuing acquisitions of complementary software businesses in what management sees as a fragmented market.
Asli also discusses Yocale.ai’s existing international footprint, spanning 22 countries and 11 languages, and why consolidation could become an important part of the company’s longer-term growth strategy.
Watch the full interview above to learn more about Yocale.ai’s technology, target market and plans to build a broader AI-powered platform for service-based businesses.
Yocale.ai targets beauty and wellness with AI automation
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Ricki: Can artificial intelligence transform the way millions of service-based businesses attract customers, manage appointments and grow their revenue?
Hello, I’m Ricki Lee, and this is The Capital Compass. Today, we’re taking a closer look at Yocale.ai (CSE:YAI), a company that recently began trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange and is bringing AI-powered automation to the business management software market.
Joining me today to discuss the company, its strategy and where it’s headed next is Aydin Asli, CEO of Yocale.ai. Aydin, great to have you with us today.
Aydin: Nice to be here, Ricki. Thanks for having me.
Ricki: It’s a pleasure to have you with us. Let’s start with the bigger picture, Aydin. Yocale only recently began trading publicly. For investors who are new to the company, can you give us an introduction and explain the problem that your platform is designed to solve?
Aydin: Absolutely. Yocale.ai focuses on appointment-based businesses. Our current focus is on the beauty and wellness space. For us, it’s really about making sure that we’re giving these entrepreneurs and business owners the tools they need to be successful.
When we think of these entrepreneurs, they’re really focused on their craft, but unfortunately for them, they also have to do the business side, and that side can become quite heavy very fast.
The benefits that Yocale.ai gives them allow us to focus on the A to Z of the business in terms of client acquisition, client retention, client growth and all the mundane stuff that they may not necessarily be interested in focusing on, allowing them to focus on what they love.
Then there’s the AI layer that we have. The nice thing for us is that it was never an afterthought. It’s fully embedded into the entire workflow of everything that we do.
When we look at what’s happening in the system, we’re collecting a lot of data, and that data can be turned into action in terms of what’s working in the business, what’s not working in the business, and allowing them to make sure that their business is thriving. That’s really the goal for us when it comes to Yocale.ai.
Ricki: You’ve built quite an experienced management team, with backgrounds spanning technology, AI and software development as well. What strengths does that leadership team bring, and why are they well-positioned to execute on the company’s long-term vision?
Aydin: With our management team, we’re lucky. We’ve been able to bring in a team that’s very experienced on both the enterprise side and the SMB side, looking at both the technology itself as well as the customer base.
We’ve talked to thousands of business owners and really understand what it takes to be able to service these business owners in a simple, practical way so that we’re not adding additional complexity to their day-to-day.
For us, one of the key things was making sure that, when we’re looking at the AI technology, this AI was never an afterthought. We needed to make sure that we’ve got the right technology in place to be able to move things forward in an effective way.
Ricki: And speaking to those customers, who is your ideal customer, and what makes the service-based business market such an attractive opportunity for Yocale.ai?
Aydin: Basically, anybody who has the calendar at the centre of everything they do, where repeat business matters and their reputation matters.
They’ve spent years building a brand and building a reputation. The reality is that, in today’s world, customer expectations have changed quite a bit. We expect, as consumers, to be communicated with in the same way that a big business would work with us.
I want to be reminded of my appointment. I want to make sure that I can make changes to it if I need to. I want to make sure, as a consumer, that I feel like the business really understands and knows me.
What we want to do is make sure that we’re helping these entrepreneurs run their businesses in the most effective way, allowing them to focus on what they love, which is the craft, while Yocale.ai handles everything else.
Ricki: With going public, what is the go-to-market strategy here? How do you plan to grow adoption of the platform, and what role did the recently oversubscribed private placement play in accelerating that strategy?
Aydin: We just did a C$1.74 million raise, but for us, it really wasn’t about the cash. It was about adding additional shareholders — additional strategic shareholders, really — to our network.
The goal for the cash is to accelerate everything that we’re doing. We’ve got a product that’s already been in the market, that we’ve acquired, in 22 countries and 11 languages, and it’s about accelerating the verticalization in the beauty and wellness space and moving faster.
The other area we’re looking at is strategic acquisitions.
Ricki: Actually, just moving into that — nice segue there. You’ve spoken about a roll-up strategy built around acquiring complementary software businesses. How do those acquisitions fit into your long-term vision, and what does success look like for Yocale.ai over the next three to five years?
Aydin: Acquisition and consolidation are going to be a big part of the plan. The market is quite fragmented. You’ve got a lot of players solving parts of the problem, whether they have a great product that’s solving a piece of it, they’ve got a good customer base, or they’re in a particular vertical or region.
For us, the way I look at it is quite simple. If this is technology that can give our existing customer base, or their customer base, access to new solutions and new tools to be able to run their business in a more effective way and grow their businesses, then we’re looking at it.
For us, it’s about making sure — our tagline has always been “business made simple” — that they’re running their business and their business isn’t running them. That’s the goal.
Anytime we can do anything that will allow them to be more effective in their business and just focus on their craft, we’re interested in it.
Ricki: Amazing stuff. Thank you so much for your time today, Aydin.
Aydin: Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.
Ricki: Once again, that is Aydin Asli, CEO of Yocale.ai. For more information, visit Yocale.ai. I’m Ricki Lee, and this has been The Capital Compass. Thank you for watching, and we’ll see you again next time.