Exclusive: Rishabh Pant Backs Former Zomato Executive’s Software Marketplace Techjockey

Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant has invested INR 7.40 Cr (about $0.88 Mn) in software aggregator platform Techjockey. 

Techjockey cofounder Akash Nangia told Inc42 that the capital was raised at a post-money valuation of INR 370 Cr (about $44.17 Mn). In lieu of the investment, Pant acquired a 2% stake in the startup. 

Notably, this represents a discount of nearly 10% to the INR 410 Cr valuation at which the startup bagged an undisclosed amount of capital from Forcepoint global CEO Manny Rivelo in February this year. 

Nangia said that the fresh funds will be utilised to scale up marketing efforts, expand its US presence, and onboard more sellers to its platform globally.

Founded in 2017 by former Zomato executive Akash Nangia and former McKinsey executive Arjun Mittal, Techjockey is a software aggregator startup which connects software vendors with small businesses across India. Earlier this year, it also entered the US market

Techjockey claims to have more than 500 software categories listed on its platform and helped over 3.5 Lakh businesses since its inception. It also claims to have partnered with over 3,000 software and tech brands such as Microsoft, Adobe, AWS, Keka, Freshworks, and myBillBook. 

The startup competes against the likes of Capterra, Software Advice, G2.com, and Gartner, among others, in the software review and comparison category. 

Nangia said that Techjockey clocked a revenue of about INR 125 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) and is targeting a revenue of INR 170-180 Cr in FY25.

Of the INR 125 Cr revenue it earned in FY24, around INR 7-10 Cr came from ad sales, while the remaining was generated through margins charged to the seller companies.

Nangia said that lead management, accounting, and security software are among the most lucrative categories in terms of revenue.

As Indian businesses rapidly embrace technology to automate and optimise operations, Indian enterprise tech startups continue to see heavy traction among both clients and investors. The country boasts a robust enterprise tech ecosystem comprising over 1,261 startups, and has produced  22 unicorns such as Postman, Freshworks, BrowserStack and others.

Between 2014 and the first half of 2024, the SaaS sector secured a cumulative funding worth $16 Bn across 1,847 deals. 

With this investment, Pant has entered the long list of Indian sports personalities who have invested in startups lately. Last month, KL Rahul invested in D2C men’s lifestyle brand Metaman while South African cricketer AB De Villiers invested in Indian supplement brand Supply6 in July.

In April, cricketer Shreyas Iyer invested an undisclosed amount of capital in the healthtech platform Curelo. 

Other sportspersons like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Neeraj Chopra and Hardik Pandya also backed various Indian startups in 2023.