AI startup Zoca has raised $6 million in a funding round led by Accel, with support from GTMfund, Elevation Capital, and Better Capital.
Many local businesses, like beauty salons and wellness studios, don’t have enough time, tools, or support to grow steadily. Bengaluru-based startup Zoca helps solve this problem by handling the whole growth process. It finds customer demand, helps businesses get noticed, turns leads into clients, and keeps customers coming back automatically.
“What makes this space unique is the business model. These service professionals aren’t focused on selling more units—they’re maximizing their available time. So, the ROI on every lead, every appointment, and every repeat visit directly impacts their bottom line. Every empty chair is lost revenue. We built Zoca to help them stay fully booked—without lifting a finger,” said Ashish Verma, Co-founder and CEO of Zoca.
In less than a year, Zoca says it has helped over 1,000 local beauty and wellness businesses earn more than $10 million in revenue and book over 1.2 lakh (120,000) appointments.
Zoca uses a smart system that identifies the services customers are looking for in each area. Its AI tools take care of all the marketing tasks for the business, like improving local search rankings, replying to leads, sending reminders for rebookings, and managing social media posts.
With the recent launch of AI-powered ads and social media tools, Zoca automates all business marketing tasks.
“Zoca is driving business outcomes for the underserved $750 billion global local services market. Ashish and the team have the highest customer obsession with a deep understanding of AI in automating many use cases applicable to the local services market. Growth AI agents are just the beginning. Zoca will create an agent-led OS for every hyperlocal business to achieve its full potential,” said Manasi Shah, Vice President at Accel.
“These businesses are the cornerstones of their communities, but most are left behind in a digital and AI-first world. The growth, customer retention, and engagement are all on autopilot with Zoca’s AI platform. It’s a game changer for these local businesses, and we couldn’t be more excited to support the Zoca team on their mission,” said Paul Irving, Partner at GTMfund.
Founded in 2024 by Ashish Verma and Robin Chauhan, who are alumni of IIT Kharagpur, Zoca provides an AI-powered platform to help local service businesses get noticed, booked, and rebooked, allowing them to attract more paying clients.
In the future, Zoca plans to expand its system, improve its platform’s work with other tools, and introduce its AI solutions to different industries facing similar problems.
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