Tribe, others invest $100 mn in Khatabook
BENGALURU: Kirana-tech startup Khatabook on Tuesday said it has raised $100 million as part of its Series C funding round, led by Us-based venture capital firms Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures. The capital was raised at a valuation of $600 million.
Other investors who took part in the round include Alkeon Capital and existing investors B Capital Group, Sequoia Capital, Tencent, RTP Global, Unilever Ventures and Better Capital.
It also saw participation from former and current general partners of Andreessen Horowitz, including Balaji Srinivasan and Sriram Krishnan, who invested in their personal capacities.
Alongside this round, Khatabook will also be buying back $10 million worth of employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) shares to acknowledge and reward employees, ex-employees and early investors who contributed to the company’s growth. Eligible employees will be able to sell as much as 30% of their vested options, the company said. With the fundraise, Khatabook has also expanded its ESOP pool to $50 million.
The two-and-a-half-year-old startup plans to strengthen its talent base by accelerating hiring across engineering, product, design, analytics and data science functions. Currently, Khatabook has more than 200 employees.
Khatabook will also tap proceeds from the fundraise to launch financial services offerings for its merchant partners. Mint had earlier reported that the firm was looking to enter the financial services space and launch insurance and credit offerings for partners.
For FY20, the startup posted losses of ₹126 crore, with nil operating revenue. However, the company plans to start focusing on monetization through the distribution of financial services.
“The first phase of our journey was enabling digital transformation by building a tech ecosystem for Indian MSMES (micro, small and medium enterprises). Now that we have created a widely accepted digital platform, the next step will be digitally-enabled financial services for small businesses. We are humbled by our investors’ confidence in our mission to help local businesses succeed by providing them with the right digital empowerment,” said Ravish Naresh, chief executive officer and co-founder, Khatabook.
The startup currently provides digital tools to kiranas and enables MSMES to grow efficiency and recover dues.