Venture Catalysts invests in SaaS startup Jumpstart

Jumpstart, a customer interaction platform which operates on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, has secured an undisclosed amount in funding from incubation platform Venture Catalysts.

Some of the individual investors who contributed to the round were Rajesh Patel, Mrunal Jhaveri, Bhavesh Chaudhary and Bobby Reddy, according to a press statement.

Jumpstart said it plans to boost its market presence, with the aim of engaging with one million businesses by 2022.

Enterprises that have used Jumpstart’s proprietary technologies have recorded up to a 40% increase in customer footfall, said Jumpstart co-founder Raghav Soni.

“This funding round will help us double down on our industry-first innovation,” Soni added.

Jumpstart, co-founded by Soni and Qamar Siddiquie, helps local and small and medium enterprises optimise customer communication and engagement.

Started in late-2017, Jumpstart enables brands to drive purchase decisions, brand visibility and customer experience. 

The company said it has already provided its services to more than 4,000 businesses in the retail and service segment. Soni and Siddiquie previously worked at two-wheeler marketplace CredR, with the former being the chief marketing officer and the latter working as the head of business talent acquisition.

Venture Catalysts was founded in 2015 by Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Anil Jain, Anuj Golecha and Gaurav Jain. It typically invests between $250,000 and $1 million in early-stage startups across several sectors.

Deals in the SaaS segment

• June 2019: Employee performance management platform Dockabl raised $1.26 million (around Rs 8.73 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round from a clutch of investors.
• May 2019: New York-based investment firm Tiger Global Management led a Series C funding round of $50 million (Rs 350 crore) in Zenoti, a software provider to salons and spas. 
• May 2019: Skillenza, a SaaS-based online hiring firm, raised $1 million (approximately Rs 6.96 crore at current exchange rates) in a pre-Series A funding round led by CBA Capital’s Education Catalyst Fund.