GupShup attains unicorn status after raising $100 million from Tiger Global Management

• Prior to this, GupShup had raised $10 million in 2011 from Tenaya Capital, Lloyd George, Helion Ventures, CRV, others.
• The company will use the funding to scale its product and go-to-market initiatives across the world.
• To date, It has raised over $140 million in its funding rounds.

San Fransico-based conversational messaging platform GupShup has attained unicorn status after raising $100 million (about Rs 746 crore) in a funding round led by Tiger Global Management at a valuation of $1.4 billion.

With this round, GupShup is the 10th startup in 2021 that attained unicorn status after CRED, Meesho, Pharmeasy, Innovaccer, Five Star Finance, Infra.market, Groww, and Sharechat. Tiger Global recently invested in Sharechat at a billion-dollar valuation.

Commenting on the development, GupShup, in a statement said, this funding round will be followed by a second close with additional funds raised from more investors, which the company will announce later. The company will use the funding to scale its product suite and go-to-market initiatives globally to accelerate the transformation of business-to-consumer interactions.

The funding announcement comes almost after a decade, previously it had raised Rs 50 crore ($10 million) in 2011, co-led by Tenaya Capital, Lloyd George Management, Helion Venture Partners, CRV, and Globespan Capital Partners. To date, GupShup has raised over $150 million in a set of six funding rounds.

The company is also planning to launch its initial public offering (IPO) soon. “At some point, we will also look at public listing, IPO, and so on,” said, Beerud Seth, Co-founder of GupShup.

Founded in 2004 by IIT-Bombay alumni Beerud Sethi and Rakesh Mathur, GupShup is an online conversational messaging platform that helps businesses to interact with customers through mediums such as email, SMS, WhatsApp, Voice, and chatbot.

The company has developed an API-based system that allows over 100K developers and businesses to build messaging and conversational experiences delivering more than 6 billion messages every month through 30+ messaging channels.

It counts Facebook, Twitter, Paytm, Infosys, WhatsApp, Google, Flipkart, HDFC Bank, CISCO, Unilever, Xiaomi, ICICI Bank, Reliance Jio, Zomato, Ola, LinkedIn, among others, as customers.

Speaking on the investment, John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global Management, said, “Gupshup is uniquely positioned to win in this market with a differentiated product, a clear and sustainable moat, and an experienced team with a proven track record."

Beerud Sethi, said, “Gupshup's mission is to build the tools that help businesses better engage customers through mobile messaging and conversational experiences. As we work towards our mission, we are delighted with this investment from Tiger Global, given its incredible track record of making big, bold, successful bets on innovative, category-defining companies worldwide."

GupShup claims that it has witnessed a rapid increase in their business growth and have generated annual revenue run rate (ARR) of $150 million last year.

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