SoftBank In Talks To Infuse $100 Mn In SaaS Startup Mindtickle

SoftBank is reportedly in advanced talks with sales SaaS platform MindTickle to lead a $100 Mn round. This will mark the Japanese conglomerate’s first deal in a SaaS startup from its India team.  

In July 2019, Mindtickle’s valuation stood at $250 Mn after receiving a $40 Mn fund from Norwest Venture Partners. With the investment from SoftBank, Mindtickle’s valuation is to double to $500 Mn.  

Other existing investors in Mindtickle include Canaan Partners, and New Enterprise Associates.

Founded in 2011 by Krishna Depura, Nishant Mungali, Mohit Garg and Deepak Diwakar, MindTickle is a SaaS platform that focuses on improving the sales function in businesses. The Pune and San Francisco-based company claims to cut training time for salespeople who need to be kept up-to-date on new product lines. It also offers solutions for on-boarding, micro-learning, skills development and coaching to companies that have been using legacy learning management systems (LMS). 

MindTickle clientele includes United Colors of Benetton, Dabur, Symantec, Phillips, Micro Focus, DexCom, Ola Cabs, Cloudera and Nutanix, among others.

“SaaS is being seen as the safest bet in tech investing right now. While economics have always been better than consumer internet companies, today there is a lot of room to grow even for mature companies. Which is why valuation multiples are rising,” a person who did not wish to be named told Moneycontrol.

Previously, SoftBank had invested in several other Indian companies which include Ola, Oyo, Paytm, Policybazaar, Lenskart, and many others. 

India’s Burgeoning SaaS Market  

Latest Inc42Plus report, “Opportunities For Horizontal SaaS In India’s SMB Market 2020”, revealed that in FY2019, the aggregate revenue of Indian origin horizontal SaaS startups stood at over $518 Mn, which is a 27% surge compared to the previous year. The fact that this deals with the India-registered entities, indicates the growing adoption of Indian origin horizontal SaaS products in the domestic market as well, besides overseas.

Globally, according to NASSCOM report, the SaaS market is projected to reach over $307 Bn in market size by 2026 from $158 Bn in 2020.

Zoho and Freshworks are two of the most famous names in the Indian startup ecosystem and together these companies have put Chennai on the global SaaS map, which has allowed the city to become India’s SaaS capital. The influence of these two startups on the SaaS cannot be understated and they have inspired hundreds of other startups in Chennai and around India. 

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