CleverTap raises Series B from Sequoia, Tiger Global for data sciences push

WizRocket Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates customer lifecycle management platform CleverTap, on Wednesday said it has raised $26 million (Rs 179.4 crore at the current exchange rate) in a Series B round of funding to focus on product innovation for enterprises.

While existing investor Sequoia Capital India led the round, US-based venture capital-style investor Tiger Global Management backed CleverTap for the first time. Venture capital firm Accel topped up its investment as well. CleverTap said the infusion had taken its valuation to more than $150 million.

The firm said that the fresh capital will be used to accelerate its data science-driven product capabilities. Through its behavioural and user engagement analytics platform, CleverTap allows businesses to discover people, events and behaviour on their websites and mobile apps. It then applies behavioural trends to improve retention, engagement and conversion rates.

"Powered by the next generation of data science enabled capabilities, it [CleverTap] is allowing companies to automate their marketing decisions -- leading to better business outcomes," said Prashanth Prakash, partner at Accel.

CleverTap was founded in 2013 by Sunil Thomas, Anand Jain and Suresh Kondamudi.

A University of Washington alumnus, Thomas was earlier chief technology officer at internet solutions firm Infospace Inc. Jain was previously CTO of local search site Burrp.com. He had also worked at Motorola and AT&T Wireless. Kondamudi is an Indian Institute of Technology-Madras graduate and had previously worked at Qwest Software and JiGrahak Mobility Solutions.

The company claims to have more than 8,000 customers. It counts firms such as Sony, Zomato, Hotstar and Zilingo among its clients. CleverTap recently opened its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore, and has also expanded its presence in the Americas and Europe.

In January last year, CleverTap had raised an undisclosed sum from Japan-based diversified consumer and business services provider Recruit Holdings Co. Before that, it had raised $8 million from Sequoia Capital India and Accel in 2015.

Deals in the customer engagement segment

• December 2018: California- and Bengaluru-based marketing cloud platform MoEngage Inc. raised $9 million (around Rs 63 crore) in a Series B round of funding led by new investors Matrix Partners and Ventureast.

• February 2018: WebEngage, a user engagement software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup run by Webklipper Technologies Pvt. Ltd, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Social Capital.