[Funding] Conversational Messaging Startup Gupshup raises $100 million from Tiger Global; turns a Unicorn

Conversational messaging platform Gupshup has raised $100 million from Tiger Global, pushing the company's valuation to $1.4 billion. According to reports, this is the company's first financing round in a decade. It had last raised Rs 50 crore ($10 million) in 2011 at a valuation of Rs 1,000 crore. Tiger Global led the round with participation from CRV, Globespan Capital Partners and Helion Ventures. The company plans to use the new capital to scale its product suite and go-to-market initiatives across the world.

This makes Gupshup the tenth startup to enter the country's unicorn club this year. Six of these did so in just the past week. These include social commerce platform Meesho, social network Sharechat, fintech startup Cred, online pharmacy PharmEasy and investment app Groww. Other unicorns of 2021 include insurance tech platform Digit, health tech platform Innovaccer, and Infra.Market, an online marketplace for construction materials.

About Gupshup

Founded in 2004, the company has experimented with several business models in the messaging segment over the years, starting with a consumer-focused group text messaging service, followed by an instant messaging app, and later pivoting to an enterprise messaging business providing customer and brand engagement solutions for developers and large businesses across various sectors. Gupshup's current suite of solutions includes messaging APIs, a bot platform, bot building tools, a scripting engine, an omnichannel inbox, and conversational experiences among others.

More than 100,000 developers and businesses have built messaging and conversational experiences through its API, delivering over six billion messages monthly across more than 30 messaging channels including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Signal, Twitter, Slack, Skype, Gupshup IP (GIP) messaging channel, Rich Communication Services (RCS) and text messages, the company said in a statement. Gupshup also said it exited 2020 with an annual revenue run rate of about $150 million.

This is also Tiger Global’s third investment this week. It led a $502 million round in ShareChat on Thursday; an $83 million funding round in online investment app Groww on Wednesday. It also led a $115 million funding in Innovaccer in February; a $100 million financing in Infra.Market. It also co-led a $250 million funding in IPO-bound Zomato.