SaaS Startup Celebal Tech Bags $32 Mn To Fuel Europe, Middle-East Expansion

Jaipur and California-based software consulting platform Celebal Technologies has raised $32 Mn (NR 261.4 Cr) in minority growth investment from venture capital (VC) firm Norwest Venture Partners. 

The startup will use the funding to expand to new territories such as Europe, Middle East and Japan. The investment will also be deployed to strengthen its presence in existing markets across North America, India and Asia Pacific. 

Additionally, a chunk of the capital will also be utilised towards increasing delivery capacity and scaling industry-focused solution accelerators.

Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor for the deal whereas Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and company served as the legal advisor for both parties.

“Norwest’s deep business and technology services sector expertise, along with its global portfolio presence, complements Celebal Technologies’ strengths and ability to grow the business in key markets and in new domains like sustainability,” said Celebal’s chief executive officer (CEO) and cofounder Anirudh Kala. 

Reacting to the development, Norwest Venture Partners’ managing director Shiv Chaudhary said,“We are pleased to welcome Celebal Technologies to the Norwest family…Celebal Technologies continues to demonstrate strong, differentiated execution and team culture. The company is laying the foundation for further scale and capturing the very large global market opportunity.”

This marks the completion of the first round of institutional funding for the startup. 

Founded in 2015 by Anirudh Kala and Anupam Gupta, Celebal offers a plethora of differentiated services and accelerators on the Microsoft Azure and Databricks platforms. It also has a range of products across domains such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), data science, cloud-based services, chat bots, low code platforms, among others. 

The startup caters to more than 100 clients globally, including Fortune 1000 companies. With presence in countries such as the US, Canada, Middle-East Asia, Celebal has more than 1,600 employees on its rolls. 

Celebal competes with a slew of competitors in the space including names such as CloudCover and Clarion Technologies.

The announcement comes as both pure-play SaaS and allied enterprisetech startups continue to be a rage amongst investors. According to Inc42, enterprisetech emerged as the second most funded sector in the third quarter (Q3) of the calendar year 2022 (CY22), raising $424 Mn across 66 deals. 

Days ago, enterprisetech startup Gallabox secured $1.2 Mn in a seed funding round led by Prime Venture Partners. In November, media-focused SaaS startup Amagi bagged $100 Mn in funding from private equity firm General Atlantic, including a primary capital infusion of $80 Mn. 

Last month, SaaS unicorn Icertis raised $75 Mn through a major debt financing funding round.

Home to cheap and easily available coders, the Indian SaaS ecosystem has seen the rise of many new players that largely cater to global audiences. Armed with high quality products and a diverse range of product offerings, the recent past has seen the mammoth rise of the Indian enterprisetech startups. As per a report, the Indian SaaS segment is projected to capture 9% of the global SaaS market by 2025.