SaaS firm Clevertap in talks to close $75 million funding as valuation doubles

After the latest financing round, the Mumbai- and California-based company will be valued at $750-$775 million, more than double from its previous round, people familiar with the deal talks said.

The fundraise comes at a time when SaaS (Software as a Service) companies have seen valuations plummet after the highs touched during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Indian SaaS poster child Freshworks, which went public in the United States last year, has seen its valuation crater to $4.3 billion, down almost 68% from its IPO price as tech valuations in the US public market have been severely hit in the past eight months.

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Clevertap was aiming to close the new round at a $1 billion valuation but had tempered down its expectations due to the overall market slowdown, said another person familiar with its fundraising plan.

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The company had raised $35 million as part of its Series C round, led by Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global, in October 2019 when it was valued at $385 million.

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Clevertap competes with MoEngage, AppsFlyer, and WebEngage, among others.

In June, MoEngage had closed a $77 million round led by Goldman Sachs and B Capital, at a valuation of $650 million.

A spokesperson for Clevertap did not immediately respond to ET’s emailed query.

Emails sent to CPDQ and IIFL also did not elicit a response till press time Tuesday.

In May, Clevertap said it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire its San Francisco-based rival Leanplum, in a cash-and-stock deal.

Clevertap cofounder and executive chairman Sunil Thomas told ET at the time that its annualised revenue run-rate (ARR) was nearing $100 million.

Thomas cofounded the firm in 2013 along with Anand Jain and Suresh Kondamudi. In November last year Clevertap named Sidharth Malik as its global CEO. Malik was earlier with Freshworks.

ARR is a term commonly used in the SaaS industry indicating how much revenue they can expect to generate from subscriptions.

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The Leanplum acquisition was expected to open up a wider set of opportunities across North America, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East for Clevertap, the company had said.

At present, Clevertap provides behavioural analytics to help organisations improve customer retention.

The company’s software stack also allows customers to personalise outreach, build automated campaigns and provide cross-channel messaging capabilities across email, in-app, and WhatsApp, among others.

Its clients include Lenskart, PharmEasy, and Dream11, among others.

The company said at the start of 2022 that enterprises use its platform to send over 1 trillion messages and create about 9 million campaigns.

The firm employs around 450 people across 11 countries, with a product and engineering hub in Mumbai.

After the acquisition of Leanplum, Clevertap said its team size would increase to around 600 employees, with 1,200 customers across the globe.