Decoding How SaaS Unicorn GupShup Cracked The Middle East Market

Decoding How SaaS Unicorn GupShup Cracked The Middle East Market

SUMMARY

Gupshup entered the UAE market in September 2021 by acquiring Knowlarity Communications and claims to have grown 3x in the MENA region

At the group level, Gupshup’s consolidated revenue grew 55% YoY in FY23 and now stands close to $300 Mn

The Mumbai and San Francisco-based SaaS unicorn is looking to double its growth in the MENA region by FY24

Beerud Sheth, a technology major from MIT and IIT-Bombay, wore many hats. He had an extensive career as a financial industry professional and launched Elance, a services marketplace, before setting up Gupshup in 2004. It started as a conversational engagement platform to change the way brands communicate with people. In the following decades, Gupshup went full throttle, powering companies to manage customer lifecycles through conversations in critical areas like marketing, sales and support.“India is our oldest market and 60% of Gupshup’s business still comes from there. However, the UAE market has contributed nearly 4-5% of our revenue in the past 18 months. Gupshup’s monthly recurring revenue (MRR) has tripled in the MENA region due to the rapid adoption of its products,” said Mukul Yadav, senior director and head of the MENA region. Inc42 had an exclusive conversation with him on the sidelines of this year’s GITEX Global held in Dubai.The SaaS unicorn is looking to double its growth in the MENA region by FY24. Yadav emphasised that 2021 and 2022 (calendar years) were a period of aggressive growth for Gupshup. The company entered new markets like the UAE and invested in as many as five acquisitions – OneDirect, AskSid Technology Solutions, Active.ai, Knowlarity Communications and Dotgo – all of which were successfully integrated. “Breaking into that community posed a major challenge, but we also realised something vital. We know by now that India is more price-sensitive, while the UAE is more product-sensitive,” said Yadav.“WhatsApp came to India first (2012), and we have been using it for almost a decade. But in the Middle East, especially in the UAE, the pick-up started only two and a half years ago. Now, people are quite tech-savvy and they want these solutions. They might have started late, but they are moving really fast,” he added.“There is a difference between an autorickshaw and a car. An autorickshaw can get you from point A to point B, but when you get in the car, you can go on the highway, switch on the AC and drive in cruise mode. You can do so many extra things. People get excited about it. They want more. That’s the thing with this market. And that’s what Gupshup is offering them.”

The platform uses a single API to automate business operations across 30+ channels, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Viber, Telegram, voice, SMS, web and app, among others. It has also launched ACE LLM, which uses generative AI (genAI) to transform customer experience.

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