SAN FRANCISCO, 04/08/2021 – Gupshup, the leader in conversational messaging has raised $ 100 million in funding from Tiger Global Management, bringing the company’s valuation to $ 1.4 billion.
This financing will be followed by a second round of financing, in which further investors will bring in considerable funds. Details will be announced at a later date.
This latest round of financing follows several years in which Gupshup has risen to become the global market leader in conversational messaging through profitable growth, product innovation and customer acceptance.
The Gupshup API enables over 100,000 developers and businesses to create messaging and conversational experiences, who send over 6 billion messages per month on more than 30 messaging channels. Gupshup will use this investment to rapidly scale product and go-to-market initiatives worldwide to accelerate the transformation of business-to-consumer interactions with conversational experiences through messaging channels.
“The increasing business use of messaging and conversational experiences, which are reshaping virtually every customer touchpoint, is an exciting long-term trend,” said John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global Management. “Gupshup is optimally positioned to be victorious in this market with a differentiated product, a clear and sustainable economic moat, and an experienced team with a proven track record. In addition to its market leadership, Gupshup also impressed us with its unique combination of size, growth and profitability. “
Gupshup has long been the established leader in corporate messaging in India. Most of the major brands in India across industries use the Gupshup API to interact with customers across multiple channels, especially via SMS. In recent years corporate messaging has become more conversational as SMS messages contain hyperlinks, and at the same time newer IP-based messaging channels such as WhatsApp, RCS, and the Gupshup IP messaging (GIP) channel have emerged. Gupshup is one of the pioneers and first-time providers in the transition of the industry to conversational messaging.
Unlike the telco-based SMS ecosystem, which is fragmented from country to country, IP messaging works exactly the same around the world, accelerating Gupshup’s global expansion.
The Gupshup technology, which is optimized for a mobile-first economy like India is very popular in emerging countries with a similar dynamic.
“Customers expect to be able to talk to companies the same way they do to friends, and they want the conversation to be simple, easy, fast, contextual and personalized,” said Beerud Sheth, co-founder and CEO of Gupshup. “Gupshup is committed to developing tools that help companies better engage customers through mobile messaging and conversational experiences. On the way to solving this challenge, we are very excited about the investment from Tiger Global, as they have an incredible track record of making large, bold and successful investments in innovative, industry-defining companies around the world. “
Gupshup’s last financing round took place in 2011. The company has grown rapidly in recent years and closed 2020 with annual sales of approximately $ 150 million.