Korawad Chearavanont ( th, กรวัฒน์ เจียรวนนท์) is a Thai entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Amity, formerly known as Eko, an enterprise communications app headquartered in

Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...

Biography

Chearavanont is the son of

Suphachai Chearavanont , alma_mater = Boston University , occupation = Business executive , years_active = 1989-present , title = C.P. Group (CEO)True Corporation (Chairman) , children = 3, including Korawad Chearavano ...

, CEO of

Charoen Pokphand The Charoen Pokphand Group Company, Ltd. (CP) (; ) is a Thai conglomerate based in Bangkok. It is Thailand's largest private company and the largest privately held Royal Warrant holder of the Thai Royal Family. The company describes itself as havi ...

Group, Thailand's largest private company where his grandfather

Dhanin Chearavanont Dhanin Chearavanont ( th, ธนินท์ เจียรวนนท์; ; born 19 April 1939), known in Chinese as Chia Kok Min (), is a Thai billionaire businessman, based in Bangkok. He is the senior chairman of CP Group, Thailand's largest ...

currently serves as senior chairman. He was educated at the

Lawrenceville School The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Lawrenceville is a member of the Eight Scho ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

for two years, where he was a history major, before leaving in 2015 to pursue a career in entrepreneurship.

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. 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 500 Global (previously 500 Startups) is an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai. The fund admitted a first "class" of twelve startups to its incubator office in Mountain View, Califor ...

, Gobi Ventures, and

Itochu is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo. It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading companies). Among Japanese trading companies, it is distinguished by not being descende ...

. The Series B funding round led by

Sinar Mas Sinar Mas is one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. It was formed in 1938. It has numerous subsidiaries including Asia Pulp & Paper and palm oil producer PT SMART. The company also acquired Berau Coal Energy from Asia Resource Mineral ...

Digital Ventures raised $20 million, with investors such as

Air Asia Capital A Berhad, () operating as AirAsia (stylized as ''airasia'') is a Malaysian multinational low-cost airline headquartered near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the largest airline in Malaysia by fleet size and destinations. AirAsia operat ...

’s digital investment fund and EV Growth, giving a total amount of $28.7 million by 2019. Chearavanont stated that the enterprise collaboration market “is really open right now” when discussing the many competitors like

Slack Slack may refer to: Places * Slack, West Yorkshire, a village in Calderdale, England * The Slack, a village in County Durham, England * Slack (river), a river in Pas-de-Calais department, France * Slacks Creek, Queensland, a suburb of Logan City, ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

, and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

. Notable clients of Amity include companies such as

Bangkok Bank Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited ( th, ธนาคารกรุงเทพ, RTGS: Thanakhan Krung Thep) is one of the largest commercial banks in Thailand. Its branch network includes over 1,165 branches, As of September 2018 within Thail ...

Thanachart Bank Thanachart Bank Public Company Limited (TBank) ( th, ธนาคารธนชาต) was a bank headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. It commenced operations on 22 April 2002 with Thanachart Capital PCL (TCAP) as its parent company. In 2018, ...

BEC-TERO Tero Entertainment Public Co. Ltd., formerly known as BEC-Tero, is a mass media and entertainment company in Thailand. It organizes and promotes concerts, owns record labels and produces films and television shows. BEC-Tero was formed on March 27 ...

True Corporation True Corporation Public Company Limited (TRUE) is a communications conglomerate in Thailand. True controls Thailand's largest cable TV provider, TrueVisions, Thailand's largest internet service provider True Internet and one of Thailand's larges ...

, and

Telekom Malaysia Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) is a Malaysian telecommunications company founded in 1984. Beginning as the national telecommunications company for fixed line, radio and television broadcasting services, it has evolved to become the country's larg ...

. There are currently approximately five million active users across Asia, Europe, and North America. 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.

Accolades

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chearavanont, Korawad Korawad Chearavanont Korawad Chearavanont Lawrenceville School alumni Columbia University alumni Living people Korawad Chearavanont Year of birth missing (living people)