India-based accounting and invoicing software developer Khatabook secured $100m yesterday in a series C round that included internet group Tencent and consumer goods conglomerate Unilever, the latter through subsidiary Unilever Ventures.
Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures co-led the oversubscribed round and were also joined by Alkeon Capital, Sequoia Capital, RTP Global, B Capital Group, Better Capital and private investors Balaji Srinivasan and Sriram Krishan.
Founded in 2018 and currently boasting 10 million monthly active users, Khatabook provides digital tools that help micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to digitise their books and get paid online.
The company also plans to buy back $10m of shares issued through an employee stock ownership plan, with eligible employees able to sell up to 30% of their vested options. The round valued it at almost $600m post-money.
Khatabook received $60m in a May 2020 series B round led by B Capital Group and backed by Tencent, Unilever Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Falcon Edge Capital, Rocketship VC, individual investors and unnamed partners of DST Global at a reported valuation of up to $300m.
In October 2019, the company raised $25m in series A funding from Tencent, accelerator operator Y Combinator, GGV Capital, RTP Global, Sequoia Capital, unnamed partners of DST and other private investors.
Ravish Naresh, chief executive and co-founder of Khatabook said: “Now that we have built a widely accepted tech ecosystem for MSMEs across the country, we will focus on financial service disbursement through our tech platforms.
“The financial services on the Khatabook platform will digitally foster lending, payment and deposits related efficiencies in the MSME space.
“As we build financial services, we will be looking for the right partnership opportunities to enable the seamless rollout of solutions benefiting the economic aspirations of millions of small businesses.”
