Retention platform CleverTap bags $105 million in fresh funding

Customer engagement and retention platform CleverTap has raised $105 million in a new financing round, the latest in a series of India-origin startups making fast inroads in the global SaaS race.

Canada’s pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) led the California-headquartered startup’s Series D funding, with participation from IIFL AMC’s Tech Fund, Tiger Global, Sequoia India and Recruit Holdings, the startup said Tuesday. The new round values the startup at about $775 million, up from $385 million in 2019.

The startup operates cloud-based customer management and engagement tracking tools that help its clients sustain their user bases and increase their lifetime value. CleverTap says it sifts through data points in apps to offer contextual and personalized recommendations to clients, who also use the platform to run campaigns to test new features and offerings.

Stats shared by CleverTap on its website. Image Credits: CleverTap

Over 1,200 customers — including EA, TED, Gojek, Mercedes Benz and Canon — across more than five dozen nations use CleverTap to power over 10,000 apps, the startup said.

CleverTap, which started its journey in India, is among a growing list of SaaS startups that are increasingly gaining adoption in the U.S., Europe, U.K. and other international markets and regions. The South Asian nation’s long expertise in IT services and expansive developer community have allowed local firms to find footings overseas and compete with features and pricing with their global peers.

“India has a large business process management workforce which provides a pool for building a scalable inside sales team in India,” analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein wrote in a note to clients earlier this year. “Size of India inside sales pool is ~120,000 (skill ready is ~380,000) compared to the U.S. at 300,000-400,000. Indian SaaS companies have better profitability as they have an advantage of lower product development cost and sales and marketing cost.”