CRMNEXT Raises $16Mn In Funding Led By Avataar Ventures, Ascent Capital

CRMNEXT, a startup that provides enterprise solutions for banks and financial services companies has raised $16 Mn in a funding round led by Avataar Ventures and Ascent Capital.

The company will use the funds to double its workforce and expand globally.

Founded by Nishant Singh and Bidhan Choudhary, the Noida based company has a team of about 1,000 people and plans to double it in three years. It serves 100 global enterprises in the banking and insurance space, including HDFC, SBI, BDO Unibank, Krungsri Consumer Finance, National Bank of Oman, Arab Bank and Metlife. Headquartered in Noida, CRMNEXT also has offices in 11 countries across USA, West Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia.

“We have been able to double ARR and register our highest-ever revenue and EBITDA in FY21 at a time when most of our customers had their operations massively curtailed. In such a setting, to deliver a 150 percent net dollar retention rate speaks volumes in terms of our customer’s belief in CRMNEXT as a strategic platform for them,” said Nishant Singh, CEO and founder, CRMNEXT.

He added, “At a time when most banking centres were closed, we helped our customers smoothly scale their operations (for example, seamless business continuity, work from home capabilities) while also investing in getting ready for the new normal (for example, virtual relationship management, newer AI-driven customer engagement models). My ultimate vision is for us to help usher in the autonomous banking revolution.”

Speaking on the deal, Nishant Rao, board member and founding partner of Avataar Ventures said “While CRMNEXT is already the most dominant financial service tech provider in Asia, we now have clear proof points of our products resonating even in western markets. We now already have our first 10 US bank customers with half of them already live, in record time.”

The Indian enterprise tech sector has been one of the hottest sectors since 2019. For instance, according to Inc42 Plus data, as of December 17, 2020, enterprise tech startups raised a total of $1720 Mn in funding, which was the second highest among all sectors.

The government’s proactive push towards digitalisation of the Indian economy, the growing digital presence of all businesses and greater M&A opportunities in the enterprise tech sector were the catalysts for fueling its growth.

With $1.7 Bn in funding across 128 deals in 2020, enterprise tech saw a 49.2% surge in total funding compared to 2019, and the deal count surged by 12.3% during this period.

With an 11.1% share in the total M&A count, enterprise tech startups recorded nine deals compared to 13 in the edtech space, 11 in ecommerce and nine in fintech.

Zenoti, and Postman were the prominent enterprise tech startups which made it to the unicorn club in 2020.