Is Sequoia Capital Close To Investing In SaaS Startup Whatfix?

Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital is reportedly in talks with Bengaluru-based enterprise tech startup Whatfix to invest up to $30 Mn in a funding round, joined by the company’s existing investors.

Whatfix could have a post-money valuation of $150 Mn and existing investors, Eight Roads Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners and Cisco Investments, are also likely to participate in the round, said a Livemint report, quoting unidentified sources.

Whatfix is a SaaS-based enterprise tech startup founded in 2013 by Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar Namburu. The startup is currently helping more than 400 medium and large global enterprises in the adoption of various software.

“Whatfix is a good example of India-based SaaS firms which set up shop abroad, have global customers and real growing revenue without raising too much capital,” the report added, quoting unidentified sources.

In October this year, the tech startup acquired Airim, a tech company that provides AI-powered personalisation engine for users and customers. Airim was started in 2017 bridge the information gap between a business and its consumers.

During the time of acquisition, Whatfix stated that it would become the industry’s first digital adoption solution (DAS) provider to offer autonomous personalisation solutions. Analytics tools provided by DAS vendors enable sales operations to understand how sellers engage with the system. Multinational brewery Heineken, online fashion retailer Myntra and online retailer Takealot are some of Whatfix’s clients.

The company last raised $13.2 Mn (INR 92 Cr) Series B funding from F Prime Capital, Cisco and Eight Roads in March 2019. The company had said that it would be using the funds to boost its US and Europe expansion, double employee headcounts and apply newer technologies to improve its products. The startup is also backed by investors including Stellaris Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners.

Sequoia’s Affair With SaaS Startups

Sequoia has been a prominent backer of India’s leading SaaS startups. It had invested in Freshdesk (now Freshworks) in 2016 and its other investments in enterprise SaaS include Sirion Labs and Vymo.

Sequoia Capital India closed its sixth fund at a fund corpus of $695 Mn in August 2018. The company had said that it would look at more investments in early and growth-stage startups, targeting technology, consumer and healthcare sectors across India and Southeast Asia.

Sequoia’s investments in India include Zilingo, Bira, Mu Sigma, Freshworks, Druva, Freecharge, Pine Labs, and JustDial among others. The company also announced the second cohort of its accelerator and incubator programme called Surge this year.

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