SaaS firm Whatfix raises $125 million in Series E funding from Warburg Pincus, SoftBank

Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar, Co-founders, Whatfix

Whatfix, a business-to-business digital adoption platform, has raised $125 million in its Series E funding round, led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus with participation from existing investor SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

This round of funding comes at a time when venture capital activity in India has regained momentum, particularly in the AI and SaaS sectors, following a slowdown in funding last year. Venture Capital investors and Private Equity firms have recently begun signing larger cheques for startups, signaling a revival in investment activity.

“We have started hiring in Southeast Asia and Middle East or Dubai market where we are expanding. So we are entering these newer geographies as well with the new funding. We are also strengthening our product categories which includes generative AI products as well,” said Khadim Batti, cofounder and CEO of Whatfix to Moneycontrol.

Sources told Moneycontrol that the deal was valued at $790 million pre-money and around $870 million post-money. The company has launched newer products for enterprises within the generative AI space.

“We are rolling out an intermediate product in the next quarter that understands the knowledge of the application, the support and the data we have and generates the content automatically. Whatfix used to create the workflows or walk-throughs, now that can be created with this new product,” Batti said.

The firm will utilise the funding to expand its market presence in the US, EMEA, and APAC regions. The investment will also be used for organic growth as well as strategic acquisitions, the firm said in a statement.

“This investment will add more fuel to the tank, accelerating a new era of innovation for our industry, bolstering the unparalleled value we bring to our customers, and reshaping the future of software adoption,” Batti added.

Whatfix is also open to inorganic acquisitions in the coming years.

“We don’t have a set target, however, if there are firms that enhance our product line or enhance productivity tools or something which can accelerate our Gen AI tools then we will look at it,” Batti said.

In June of 2021, Whatfix raised $90 million in a funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. Existing backers Eight Roads Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Dragoneer Investment Group, F-Prime Capital and Cisco Investments also invested in the Series D round.

Founded by Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar Namburu in 2013, Whatfix makes software adoption easier for companies.

Its products involve onboarding, performance support, change management and training. Its customers include Arrow Electronics, Schneider Electric, and Avnet, along with partners like Microsoft, Salesforce, Infosys, and Accenture.

As of FY23, Whatfix reported a revenue of Rs 285 crores, which was up 65%. The firm’s losses widened by 31% to Rs 328 crores on the back of rise in overall expenses, showed RoC filings.

The firm will be breaking-even in terms of Ebitda in the next 7-8 quarters, Batti said.

“We have been growing well, as well as optimsing our products. We have grown 45% as of FY24 and we will also look at breaking even in the next 7-8 quarters. We want to continue to invest in growth, partial revenue growth is helping us to offlset the losses and we will break even in the next few quarters,” Batti said.

Whatfix is also building its own generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) vision model for its customers.

“By integrating GenAI throughout its product suite, offering digital adoption, product analytics, and application simulation, Whatfix accelerates this user-first approach, building an experience layer across the enterprise software stack,” the firm said.

The funding comes at a time when investors are signing large cheques for startups, especially in the fintech, AI and SaaS space. Three startups, M2P Fintech, Nurix AI, and Atlys, have secured substantial investments, totalling millions of dollars.