Sequoia-Backed Hippo Video Secures $8 Mn Funding To Scale US Footprint, Expand Portfolio

Video-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Hippo Video has raised $8 Mn in a strategic funding round led by venture capital firm Dallas Venture Capital (DVC).

The funding round also saw participation from other investors such as Alpha Wave Incubation, KAE Capital, and Exfinity Venture Partners. 

The capital will be deployed to fuel Hippo Video’s expansion across the US and to expand its customer use cases. The funding will also be used to scale up its product portfolio and focus on enhancing their product features.

Founded in 2016 by former Zoho employees Karthi Mariappan, Nilam Chand Jain and Srinivasan S, Hippo Video is a B2B startup that allows its clients to create, share, and distribute videos to improve outcomes across sales, marketing, and customer success teams. 

In essence, Hippo Video is a video marketing and sales engagement platform that leverages generative AI to build hyper-personalised videos to improve engagement and improve client win rates.

“By humanising conversations with hyper-personalised, interactive videos, and enabling sales teams to distribute custom videos at scale, Hippo Video helps sales teams increase the pipeline and engagement which translates into higher win rates and revenue. This new capital will help us reach more companies in need of automated video technology to help them stand out among their prospects,” said Hippo Video cofounder and CEO Mariappan.

The fundraise comes nearly two-and-a-half years after Hippo Video raised $4.5 Mn as part of a Series A funding round led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI). Prior to that, the startup raised $1.5 Mn from Sequoia Surge accelerator as part of a seed round in 2019. Including the current round, the startup has raised $14 Mn so far. 

Hippo Video currently caters to more than 5,000 businesses, including British Airways, Genesys, Seismic, Panasonic, HP, and Freshworks, across the globe. It claims to increase the response rates of its clients by 3X and reduce sales cycle by 40%.

The announcement comes at an interesting time for Indian enterprisetech startups. While SaaS continues to be an attractive proposition for investors, the space is also feeling the heat of the global economic slowdown. 

The slowdown has forced many major companies to cut down their SaaS spending. Many enterprisetech companies have increased the prices of their products to offset this decline. 

The sector has also seen layoffs in India, with Exotel laying off 80 employees, FarEye sacking 90 employees, and SirionLabs firing 130 employees.

However, homegrown SaaS startups continue to race ahead of their global peers owing to the availability of high quality coders in the country at cheaper prices. Besides, the resource base and access to global clientele also works out in favour of Indian enterprisetech players.

A SaaSBOOMi report estimates that the Indian SaaS sector is well poised to generate revenue in the range of $50 Bn and $70 Bn by 2030 and would dominate 4%-6% of the global market by then.