Mindtickle is India's 20th unicorn of 2021 as SoftBank leads $100 million round

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Software as a service (SaaS) firm Mindtickle said it has raised $100 million in its Series E round of funding led by Japanese investment giant SoftBank, at a valuation of $1.2 billion, making it the latest member of the coveted unicorn club, a term referring to privately-funded companies with a valuation of over a billon dollars.

Pune and San Francisco-based Mindtickle, founded in 2011 by Krishna Depura, Mohit Garg, Deepak Diwakar and Nishant Mungali, helps companies build sales capabilities including training, onboarding, working on each aspect of sales, practising and improving it using technology.

It is the 20th unicorn to emerge from India this year, as the funding momentum continues unabated, in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Moneycontrol was the first to report that SoftBank was in advance talks to lead a $100 million round in Mindtickle on June 16, 2021.

Apart from SoftBank, which has doubled down on its investment from last year at double the valuation, existing investors such as Norwest Venture Partners, Canaan, NewView Capital and Qualcomm Ventures also participated in the round. With this, Mindtickle has raised $281 million in total funding till date.

Mindtickle helps sales executives practice their pitch before actually pitching, and collects data points such as common questions, feedback and how much time is spent on one topic to make the pitch more effective

“Revenue leaders understand that sales readiness is a mission-critical component of their strategy to consistently meet or exceed their goals,” said Krishna Depura, CEO and co-founder of Mindtickle.

The company said sales enablement technologies are projected to grow to $4.23 billion by 2027, and the conversation intelligence market will reach $13 billion by 2025.

Mindtickle last raised $100 million in November 2020 from SoftBank at a valuation of $500 million.

“We continue to be impressed by Mindtickle’s performance in creating and becoming a category leader in the sales readiness space,” said Munish Varma, Managing Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers.

While Mindtickle had an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of about $25-30 million when SoftBank last invested, it currently has an ARR of $40 million, according to Moneycontrol's sources. The valuation has in effect doubled and is now at 30 times the revenue. This is also because of the funding environment, where SaaS companies are raising funds at more aggressive valuation multiples than ever before- at 30-35 times ARR.

"Since our last round, Mindtickle has consistently delivered ahead of plan across all metrics. We are encouraged by their increasing customer additions, contract expansions and new product launches and acceptance," said Sumer Juneja, Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers.​

The unicorn club -- once seen as exclusive and reserved for only a few companies with massive scale and traction -- has exploded in 2021, with the coronavirus pandemic-led internet and technology boom benefitting companies and investors. India has created 20 unicorns so far this year, compared to 11 in all of 2020.