SaaS firm LeadSquared enters unicorn club with $153 million funding

The funding values the company at $1 billion, founder and CEO Nilesh Patel told ET, making it the latest software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm to join the unicorn club.

ET first reported on April 12 that the SaaS firm was in talks with WestBridge Capital for a new round of funding at a unicorn valuation.

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Unicorns are privately-held startups with a valuation of $1 billion or more. India has around 15 SaaS unicorns, of which Fractal Analytics, Uniphore, DarwinBox, Amagi Media Labs, and Hasura joined the club this year. Last year, four SaaS startups entered the unicorn club amid a funding frenzy.

Founded in 2011 by Patel, Prashant Singh, and Sudhakar Gorti, the Bengaluru and Silicon Valley-based startup provides sales and marketing automation software to businesses, helping them with lead management and analytics, among other things. Over 1,000 businesses use its platform, including Byju’s, Dunzo, Kotak Securities, Vedantu, Acko, and Practo.

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“In India, we plan to double our revenue and in North America, we are expanding our team and preparing for a high-growth scenario,” Patel told ET.

LeadSquared clocked a revenue of Rs 200 crore as of March 2022. The platform has recently set up a team in the Asia Pacific region (APAC) and has a small presence in Africa.

“We have hired some people in South Africa and will continue to expand in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) countries. We are making progress there. From a product perspective, India and the US will be our main focus,” Patel added.

The new fundraising comes after the company raised a venture round from International Finance Corporation (IFC) last October to fuel its expansion into international geographies. It also raised $32 million in a round led by Gaja Capital in December 2020, which saw participation from existing investors Skateboat Capital and serial entrepreneur, Jyoti Bansal.

“India is an underserved country in terms of software penetration and there are massive opportunities. There might be some hiccups in the market but they will be for the short-term,” Patel said.

In India, LeadSquared also competes with other sales automation and marketing players such as WebEngage and Clevertap.

“We will buy or acquihire assets in the coming quarters in India and in North America. We are looking for firms that will aid us in segments like sales training, performance, customer experience and more,” Patel said.

According to data from research platform Venture Intelligence, SaaS companies have raised $2 billion in the first quarter of 2022 across 93 deals. In comparison, Indian software startups raised $4.5 billion in 2021 and $2.6 billion in 2020.

“Valuation changes over time, but right now we are focussed on building strong businesses… times are challenging but our financial discipline in terms of cash burn, customer acquisition costs and payback period are strong,” Patel said.

The deal comes at a time when investors are taking a wait-and-watch approach.

“LeadSquared’s focus on building an easy-to-use platform that transforms sales processes through automation has significant potential for growth in the global market,” said Sumir Chadha, cofounder and managing director at WestBridge Capital.