Khatabook gets $100M, announces ESOP buyback | Economic Times

Mumbai: Khatabook, a digital book-keeping app, has raised $100 million in Series C funding round led by Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures at a post-money valuation of $600 million.The fundraise also saw participation of Alkeon Capital, B Capital Group, Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings RTP Ventures, Unilever Ventures and Better Capital. Balaji Srinivasan and Sriram Krishnan, among others, chipped in as independent investors.The capital will help Khatabook to build its financial services and strengthen its talent base.The funding was a mix of primary and secondary capital where some of the early investors and employees holding stock options have partly sold. “The startup is buying back $10 million ESOPs to acknowledge and reward employees, ex-employees, and early investors who contributed to the company’s growth,” according to a statement on Tuesday.Eligible employees will be able to sell as much as 30% of their vested stock options. The startup has also expanded its ESOP pool to $50 million now.Founded in 2018 by Ashish Sonone, Dhanesh Kumar, Vaibhav Kalpe, Jaideep Poonia and Ravish Naresh, Khatabook has built an app to help small traders and kirana shop owners manage their books. The Bengaluru-based startup, across its four applications, has more than 10 million monthly active users (MAUs).The company now aims to grow its ecosystem of small business-focused apps: Pagarkhaata for staff management, Cashbook for expense management, and recently acquired Biz Analyst for insight-driven decision-making and business management for Tally ERP9 users.“The first phase of our journey was enabling digital transformation by building a technology ecosystem for Indian MSMEs,” Naresh, who is also chief executive of Khatabook, said. “Now that we have created a widely accepted digital platform, the next step will be digitally enabled financial services for small businesses.”Khatabook, which saw its revenue grow 150% year-on-year in the fiscal year ended March 31, will also step up hiring across tech teams to cater to its increased business.“Khatabook has successfully built such a network by empowering this seismic shift among MSME businesses to move from paper to digital, literally,” said Arjun Sethi, cofounder and partner at Tribe Capital. “Despite its large early success and fast adoption to date, the company is early in its path to power the segment.”