Around seven-year-old application-as-a-service startup Whatfix, which aids enterprises enhance user adoption of applications they use, has raised $90 million in a round led by SoftBank’s second vision fund. Others which includes Eight Roads Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Dragoneer Investment Group, F-Prime Capital, and Cisco Investments participated in the round. The newest round has taken the company’s total fundraising to $139.8 million so far whilst its valuation has jumped 3x in the previous 15 months, the enterprise announced on Tuesday. Whatfix, which is now valued at almost $600 million, will deploy the capital towards expanding its marketplace in the US and apart from international expansion into new markets which includes the Asia Pacific and Europe. The enterprise would also invest the quantity in solution innovation focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), enterprise options, and offering customized experiences.
“Whatfix is proud to offer a unified digital adoption experience enabling organizations to extract the full value from their software tools while also empowering employees, customers, and businesses,” stated Khadim Batti, CEO and co-founder, Whatfix in a statement. The enterprise claimed that its income and headcount has tripled in the previous two years. Whatfix is the third Indian startup raising investment from SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. Lenskart and Meesho are the other two Indian startups in the fund’s portfolio.
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“Whatfix makes it easier for companies to use SaaS products, which increases productivity. Whatfix, with its roster of global clients, is well placed to become a DAS leader, and we are excited to be part of their journey,” stated Munish Varma, Managing Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers. The enterprise boasts of more than 500 international clients comprising more than one hundred Fortune 1000 brands which includes The Netherlands Red Cross, Experian, Sentry Financial Services, Cardinal Health Canada, BMC Software Inc., Bausch & Lomb, and so on.
SoftBank had in October last year had doubled down on its artificial intelligence focused second Vision Fund with a $5 billion commitment to the fund which was launched in October 2019 targeting $108 billion size. This was up from $5 billion committed to the fund by the Group and its subsidiaries as of September 30, 2020. According to Gartner, spending on SaaS applications by enterprises in India will develop by 20.8 per cent to $1.41 billion and 20.2 per cent to $1.69 billion in 2022. The finish-user spending on public cloud services in India will be worth $4.4 billion in 2021, up 31.4 per cent from 2020.