Conversational AI platform Gupshup has raised more than $60 million in a mix of equity and debt funding from Globespan Capital Partners and EvolutionX Debt Capital.
The funds will be used to deepen Gupshup’s presence in high-growth regions such as India, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa and to accelerate adoption of its conversational AI agents and messaging tools by enterprises.
“The funds will be mostly used for growth. That means continuing with product innovation and global expansion... In a nutshell, those are the two major growth areas we’ve identified. That’s what we’re going to invest in and scale up," Gupshup founder and chief executive officer said Beerud Sheth told Moneycontrol, without sharing the valuation.
Flipping back
The fresh capital comes at a time when Gupshup is exploring the option of shifting its headquarters back to India, over two decades after being founded in San Francisco, US.
"We are exploring options to redomicile to India. There are internal discussions underway, and it's something we are working on," Sheth said. The move is part of a broader push to align more closely with India’s vibrant tech ecosystem and public markets.
Gupshup's move to shift its headquarters back to India comes at a time when several startups are exploring the reverse flip.
While startups such as Razorpay, PhonePe, and Groww have already shifted their domicile to India, others like Clevertap and Freo are exploring a similar move, as investor sentiment and public market readiness in India improve.
Founded in 2004, Gupshup has evolved from a basic SMS provider to a prominent conversational AI platform, processing over 120 billion messages a year. It serves 50,000 customers across 130 countries. Gupshup has been expanding rapidly in sectors like banking, retail, and consumer goods.
“From India to UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, Gupshup’s Conversation Cloud and AI Agents are transforming customer and employee interactions,” said Andy Goldfarb, co-founder and managing partner at Globespan Capital Partners.
The latest raise follows Gupshup’s $240 million round in 2021, which included Tiger Global and Think Investments. While the company hasn’t revealed its current valuation, Sheth said Gupshup is focused on long-term fundamentals rather than short-term metrics.
In 2023, US-based Fidelity Investments, which acquired a stake in Gupshup in August 2021 for about $16 million, marked down the fair value of Gupshup. The world’s largest investor marked down the fair value of its holding to a little over $8 million, effectively valuing the company at $700 million, significantly lower than its last valuation of $1.4 billion.
“We’re very focused on building deep moats — product depth, customer relationships, geography,” Sheth said. “We’re not chasing revenue just for vanity.”
While Sheth did not commit a timeline for the IPO, he said the firm is looking at listing in 18 to 24 months.
“It’s a natural progression, but we want to do it thoughtfully. We want to be ready financially, operationally, and structurally. So it may take anywhere from 18-24 months for a public listing plan," he added.
Gupshup plans to continue innovating across its suite of offerings, from AI-powered campaign managers to virtual sales and support agents. “Conversational AI isn’t just about chatbots anymore, it’s about enabling full-funnel commerce, customer support, and retention,” Sheth said.
He said the firm is growing at a CAGR of 30-40 percent. "Our revenues have tripled since 2021, when we raised a big round... Back then it was closer to $100 million... Our CAGR has been in the 30–40 percent range for a few years. We’re also growing profitably and investing prudently," he added.
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