Sequoia-backed Khatabook Raises $60 Mn in Series B Funding Round The round was led by B Capital Group and saw participation from two new investors Rocketship.vc and Unilever Ventures along with some existing investors
By Shipra Singh
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Khatabook, a digital ledger app for small businesses, has raised $60 mn (INR 454 crore) in Series B funding round led by B Capital Group.
The round also saw participation from a group of existing investors, including Sequoia India, Partners of DST Global, Tencent, GGV, RTP Global, Hummingbird Ventures, Falcon Edge Capital and two investors Rocketship.vc and Unilever Ventures. Some prominent angel investors, including Kevin Weil, Kunal Shah and Kunal Bahl, among others also participated.
Founded in 2018 by four IIT Mumbai graduates Ravish Naresh, Jaideep Poonia, Dhanesh Kumar and Ashish Sonone, Khatabook enables merchants to record their transactions in a digital ledger, which eases the task of maintaining account books and also creates transparency in cash flow.
"Khatabook is the biggest player in the micro, small and medium business segment in the country, with over 8 million active merchants on the app. Khatabook is playing an important role in the digitization of MSMEs – a sector that forms the backbone of our economy - helping to increase their incomes and making them more efficient and competitive. We are looking to work closely with the government and financial institutions to strengthen Indian MSMEs", said Ravish Naresh, co-founder and CEO of Khatabook in a statement.
With the fresh funding, the Bengaluru-based startup aims to ramp up their products and services offerings for India's merchants, as the company builds technology solutions around financial services and a large merchant-focused distribution platform.
In under a year, about 8 mn active merchants across 11 languages have signed up for Khatabook's services, it claims. Further, more than 1 mn merchants upload data and engage with the app daily while adding $200 mn worth of transactions every day, as per the company statement.
"We have been tracking the company and are impressed by its product suite as it is addressing the critical pain points of merchants across credit tracking, revenue leakage and collections. We expect the number of digitally sophisticated MSMEs to double over the next three to five years. Small and medium-sized businesses will drive the Indian economy in the era of COVID-19 and they need digital tools to make their businesses efficient and to grow," said Kabir Narang, General Partner and Co-Head of Asia, B Capital Group .
Khatabook last raised $25 mn in series A funding round from GGV Capital, Partners of DST Global, RTP Global, Sequoia India, Tencent and Y Combinator in September 2019. In April 2019, the fintech startup was among the 17 startups shortlisted by Sequoia India for its accelerator program "Surge' .
With this round, Khatabook's total capital raised stands at $87 mn (INR 658 crore).
