What's BatCrab? A business phone system for SMEs, obviously.

    As its name suggests, BatCrab has set out to make an unusual combination of usual concepts work perfectly. The startup has taken a smartphone, a simple phone and a landline and made sure you would not tell a difference in terms of how easily you can manage your calls. Launched just a month ago, the company already has positive cash flow and is making the on-call customer service of about 500 SMEs in about 60 countries way easier.

    BatCrab is focused on small businesses that rely on phones for their customer support. The service provides its users with a platform to configure their own cloud-based business phone network. After setting up, each team member becomes equipped with a fully-featured business phone system, regardless of his or her device. The system allows to add such features as customized voice greetings, different call forwarding and handling options, voicemail / fax to e-mail and many more.

    BatCrab is particularly proud of its call statistics handling that displays all call statistics in real-time and allows quick and smooth business decision-making.

    “Analyzing call statistics provides business developers with a clear look at support operations,” says Gediminas Jocys, CTO of BatCrab. “Managers can easily find out when more support staff should be answering the calls, check the most busy or unoccupied time frames, most popular numbers and other important information.”

    BatCrab was started in May 2012 by two Lithuanians with telecommunications background – Edvinas Mancas and Gediminas Jocys. Both met while working in one of the leading global IP-based telecommunications suppliers and became good friends. After exchanging some stories and ideas, the guys discovered that they shared a passion for startups and had the know-how and capabilities to create a service that would simplify the on-phone customer support for small enterprises.

    ‘We discovered that a lot of small and mid-sized companies struggle with customer support by phone because cellphones are just not designed for that,’ explains BatCrab CEO Edvinas. ‘When we say that our services work perfectly with any phone, we mean just that. No matter what device you have, all features mentioned on our website will be at your disposal after activating your BatCrab account.’

    The website is indeed designed with their ideal customer  in mind. The features are simply explained, the pricing has flexible options for growing businesses and the live chat helps resolve any questions right away. The startup has also added two more members – a designer Zivile Martinonyte and a community manager Bernadete Sukyte.

    Currently BatCrab is owned by its founders and financed from retained earnings. Positive customer feedback and steadily growing user base keep the team optimistic about their future prospects. Company’s users are spread pretty evenly across the globe with the US, Canada and Lithuania taking the lead. BatCrab is now focussing on expanding its reach in the US and other English-speaking countries with Europe and South-East Asia next in mind.