Customer engagement and retention platform CleverTap has raised $105 million in a Series D funding round led by global investment group, CPDQ with participation from IIFL’s Asset Management Company (AMC) Tech Fund, along with existing investors Tiger Global and Sequoia India.
Sources say the firm is now valued over $600 million as against its last valuation in 2019 at $385 million.
As part of the transaction, CDPQ will be invest around $75 million and join CleverTap’s Board of Directors upon closure of this funding round. However, IIFL AMC’s investment is subject to approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
The Business-to-Business (B2B) software provider will be using the funds to support its global expansion and enhance the development of its solutions and technology, the firm said in a prepared statement on Wednesday.
Founded in Mumbai in 2013 by Sunil Thomas, Anand Jain and Suresh Kondamudi, CleverTap is headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a customer engagement and retention Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to offer a comprehensive user engagement suite that enables brands to build valuable, long-term relationships with their customers.
CleverTap claims to have a customer base of 1,200 brands in 100 countries representing 10,000 apps across industries including Fintech, ecommerce, subscription and streaming media.
“The addition of long-term investors CDPQ and IIFL AMC Tech fund to CleverTap’s existing backers, Sequoia India, Accel, Tiger Global, and Recruit Holdings is a great endorsement of the successful business we have built, the innovation we bring to the market and the growth potential CleverTap holds,” said Thomas in the statement.
The firm works with brands like Jio, Meesho, PharmEasy, Dream11, Nykaa, Tata Cliq, Air Asia, and Indonesia's Gojek, among others.
“The fresh funds will help fuel our plans to further strengthen our presence in key geographies and expand our teams…now with the new institutional investors coming on board we have all that we need to grow at a faster rate while consolidating our position as the global leader in the retention space,” Thomas added.
In May, CleverTap acquired its San Francisco-based rival firm Leanplum in a stock-and-cash deal. The company did not disclose the size of the transaction. In the same month, it also unveiled a purpose-built database TesseractDB to improve user engagement and retention for digital consumer brands.
In October 2019, CleverTap raised $35 million led by existing investors Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital India.
“This investment is in line with our strategy to work with innovative companies that enable rapid digital transformation, especially in the Asia Pacific region where high smartphone penetration is facilitating the digitalization of the economy at a rapid pace,” said Meng Ann Lim, managing director, direct private equity for Asia Pacific, CDPQ.
