Khatabook, a digital ledger app, is spreading its wings with the acquisition of Biz Analyst, a business management online startup. As per the latest report, Khatabook has paid $10 million in the form of cash and equity to seal this deal. The company has shown tremendous growth in recent times. The digital ledger firm has strong support from Sequoia Capital. Biz Analyst is a Mumbai-based firm.
How will Biz Analyst Add Value to the Existing Khatabook Operations?
Khatabook told that Biz Analyst’s whole team will join us and it will be having 200+ employees after the current acquisition. Top management of Biz Analyst like co-founders Vaibhav Vasa, Mehul Sutariya, Nilesh Zaveri will join the Khatabook top executive team.
Current acquisition will help the top 15% of users of Khatabook that have big businesses. It will help them to digitize their main operations with the help of Biz Analyst’s latest offerings. Biz Analyst will also help the business firms in sales automation, business analytics reports, and digital invoicing. Customers can avail of these services by subscription to the premium account.
Recently, Khatabook’s main focus is to monetize its services. The company recorded a loss of Rs 126 crore in FY2020. Biz Analyst had a revenue of Rs 4 crore in the same fiscal year. The company has a strong user base of 85000+ premium users who pay for its services.
When asked about the current acquisition, Khatabook CEO Ravish Naresh revealed that the company plans to provide a one-stop solution for all customers’ needs. The company also wants to strengthen its network in the financial sector.
He said:
“Our vision at Khatabook is to bring the entire supply chain on one platform. We already have a fair bit of overlap with distributors, traders, and manufacturers. So basically it’s an effort to intensify our network effect.”
Monetization Plans of Khatabook
The company wants to monetize the SaaS-related services. It will target the big merchants who have a large retailing and distribution network.
He further added:
“Given our growth plans, we are not targeting profitability in the short term.”
Khatabook will further expand its product and services in the second half of 2021. The startup wants to bring more supply chain-related services to help its user base. Khatabook has also announced that it is starting insurance and credit-related operations.
Naresh said:
“We will be able to provide more value to all the distributors and all the retailers on the platform by basically enabling supply chain financing and cheaper credit for them because you know banks are so not able to qualify that for such loans.”
Founded in 2019, Khatabook raised $60 million from existing investors led by B Capital under a Series B funding round. B Capital is an investment firm led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. Existing investors, including Sequoia India, Partners of DST Global, Tencent, and Unilever Ventures, and others also participated in the round. The company also got investment from CRED’s Kunal Shah and Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. Ex Cricketer MS Dhoni has also invested in Khatabook.
Covid pandemic has forced small businesses to adopt technological solutions. Khatabook is competing with OkCredit and Dukaan that are other growing startups in the same area.
