Gupshup turns unicorn with USD100 million fundraise

NEW DELHI: Messaging platform Gupshup on Thursday joined  a long line of start-ups that have managed to join the unicorn club (where valuations  are above $1 billion) this year. A statement confirmed that it has raised $100 million (around Rs 746.6 crore) in funding from Tiger Global Management that values the company at $1.4 billion. 

Gupshup follows Meesho, Digit, Innovaccer, Infra.Market, NBFC firm Five Star Business Finance, and fintech start-up Cred in gaining entry into the Indian unicorn club just this year alone.  According to Gupshup, the latest funding round will be followed by a second with significant additional funds being raised from more investors.

The company has raised $150 million in funding to date from investors like Helion Venture Partners and Globespan Capital among others, but its last fundraising round was in 2011 when it had received $10 million. Since then, however, the company has grown rapidly, closing 2020 with an annual revenue run rate of around $150 million. 

“Gupshup will use this investment to rapidly scale product and go-to-market initiatives worldwide in order to accelerate the transformation of business-to-consumer interactions with conversational experiences delivered over messaging channels,” it said.

Gupshup offers a suite of solutions including messaging APIs, bot platforms, bot building tools, scripting engine, omnichannel inbox, conversational AI, and client-side software. It claims that its APIs enable over one lakh developers and businesses to build messaging and conversational experiences  that deliver over 6 billion messages per month across over 30 messaging channels.