19 Oct , 2022 By : Monika Singh
Banking on its fresh monetisation strategy, Sequoia-backed Khatabook, a business bookkeeping software provider, expects to turn profitable in the next 18-20 months, the company announced on Tuesday. The Bengaluru-based startup said it currently has an annualised gross revenue of Rs 70 crore.
Furthering its financial services offerings, Khatabook has concluded a pilot for digital lending and is now available in all metros and tier-1 cities, the release said. FE had reported earlier that Khatabook was in search for a model that generates sustainable revenue at a time when several players in the space are struggling to generate revenue or looking to exit the industry. Further, the startup said it plans to scale up its digital lending arm and touch an assets under management (AUM) of Rs 1,000 crore in the next 12 months.
As part of its monetisation efforts, Khatabook will also be launching a paid desktop version Biz Analyst – a paid software-as-a-service (SaaS) feature which has over 0.15 million paid users in November.
“We stand at 10 million monthly active users spread across almost every district in India, and our platform records more than $32 billion in monthly transactions (in value) by our MSME users. Early this year, we started our platform monetisation initiatives with a clear strategic roadmap to turning profitable,” Ravish Naresh, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder, Khatabook, said.
As reported earlier, Khatabook is in the midst of a pivot from a startup that just helped businesses maintain daily accounts to toying with the idea of providing deeper features via a super app.
“We had a strategic timeline to focus on growth for the first three years and then enter monetisation. We are now focusing on organic growth and adding 0.6 million monthly installs organically,” Naresh added.
OkCredit, PhonePe For Business, Paytm and BharatPe are a few competitors. Khatabook had said, in terms of users, it was 1.7x of OKCredit, 1.8x of PhonePe For Business, 2x of Paytm and 3.8x of BharatPe, in its pitch deck shared with potential investors before its latest fundraise. Khatabook had raised $100 million in its Series C funding round at a valuation about $600 million in August 2021.
In total, Khatabook has raised about $187 million so far. Its other notable backers include Tencent, DST Global Partners, Y Combinator, B Capital, Alpha Wave Global (formerly called Falcon Edge Capital), and others.
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