BENGALURU: Digital ledger startup Khatabook on Thursday announced its first ever acquisition of software-as-a-service accounting app Biz Analyst for $10 million, in a mix of cash and equity.
With this, Khatabook will now be able offer premium subscription services like automatic reconciliation and digital invoicing capabilities to its 8.5 million monthly active merchant partners. For Khatabook’s mid-size retailers, the acquisition of Biz Analyst also provides them the opportunity to deploy real time business analytics and receive ledger reports.
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These features are a part of Khatabook’s strategy to boost revenues.
Khatabook also looking to go up the value chain and bolster its presence across wholesalers, suppliers, traders and manufacturers in the supply chain with the Biz Analyst’s platform.
“When a kirana orders inventory from suppliers, there are two separate entries being created - one with the retailer and the other with the supplier. Through Biz Analyst’s platform both retailer and manufacturer’s ledger can reconcile automatically, with both parties having visibility to each other's statements, avoiding any slippage. Our vision is to get the Indian supply chain on one platform," said Ravish Naresh, chief executive officer and co-founder, Khatabook in an interaction with Mint.
Four-year old Biz Analyst provides accounting solutions to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) using Tally accounting software to automate daily business operations and make data-driven decisions to manage sales, inventory, outstanding and productivity.
The Biz Analyst team will continue to run independently, retaining Mumbai operations while maintaining synergies with the Khatabook headquarters in Bengaluru. The original co-founding team of Biz Analyst will also now be a part of Khatabook’s leadership team.
Biz Analyst currently has over 80,000 paid users, with aims of doubling the numbers in 2021.
The acquired capabilities of Biz Analyst will also allow Khatabook customers to send across automated reminders to customers on outstanding payments as well.
“At Khatabook, our mission is to help SMEs manage their cash flows. A part of this is also to help these businesses recover their money. Through integration of both platforms, SMEs can now send automated reminders to customers and partners for outstanding payments, while providing payment tools such as payment links and get automatic reconciliation once the dues are paid," added Naresh.
Mint recently reported that Khatabook is exploring new revenue streams and may start offering credit and insurance products for merchants later this year. This comes after the two-year-old startup posted losses of ₹126 crore in 2019-20, with zero operating revenue since the start of operations.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Khatabook, a company whose core values and mission resonate with ours. Together, we look forward to expanding the digital adoption by SMEs through our affordable SaaS solutions and connecting businesses across different verticals onto a single platform," said the founders of Biz Analyst, Vaibhav Vasa and Mehul Sutariya in a joint statement.
Khatabook plans to disrupt digital invoicing and goods and services tax (GST) collections for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), with the launch of a separate app in the second quarter of 2021.
The company recorded close to 1.03 billion transactions on its platform last year worth $100 billion.
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