Cloud telephony startup Knowlarity's revenue rises, loss shrinks

Gurgaon-based cloud telephony startup Knowlarity Communications Pvt. Ltd has cut its losses by almost half in 2016-17, according to the company’s filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Accessed by VCC Edge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle, the RoC filings show that Knowlarity made loss of Rs 10.8 crore in 2016-17 compared with Rs 19.6 crore in the previous financial year, while its net sales were up from Rs 39.7 crore to Rs 42.3 crore during the period.

The company’s parent is registered in Singapore. Ambarish Gupta, founder and chief executive, told TechCircle that the figures, however, do not give the complete picture of the company, given that the structure of the group is complex.

Gupta said he is very happy with the growth and added that the company is EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) profitable at the global level.  

The company has cut down its expenditure from Rs 61.9 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 52.5 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2017.

A computer science graduate from IIT-Kanpur, Gupta, had worked for three years in the Silicon Valley before setting up an online real estate brokerage company, Inventica, in 2004. Soon after, he went back to the US to pursue an MBA at Carnegie Mellon University and, later, had a stint in consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

In 2009, Gupta set up Knowlarity with its first office in Gurgaon, but decided to move the headquarters to Singapore in 2013. Today, the company is a leading provider of cloud-based communications solutions to businesses in the emerging markets and offers business telephony software to some of the world’s leading corporations. Its flagship product, Super Receptionist, is a plug-and-play virtual contact centre for businesses.

Cloud telephony or hosted telephony, is a voice and messaging service that replaces the traditional business telephone equipment, EPBX, with third-party VoIP service – a technology that moves your business phone system to the cloud. It does not require heavy capex, unlike EPBX. One of the major benefits of using cloud telephony is affordability, which has led to its aggressive adoption among Indian businesses, especially start-ups.

Knowlarity had last raised money in November 2016 in a round led by Delta Partners Capital. Sequoia Capital India and Mayfield Fund had also participated in the funding round, which saw a capital infusion of $20 million, or Rs 133 crore.

Knowlarity has acquired two companies so far. In 2014, it had bought Delhi-based cloud telephony start-up Unicom Techlabs for an undisclosed amount. In 2016, it had acquired Smartwards Services, a customer engagement platform based out of Delhi.