Simply Vyapar Apps Pvt. Ltd, which runs business accounting startup Vyapar, on Wednesday said it has raised $30 million (around Rs 224 crore) as a part of its Series B funding round led by WestBridge Capital.
Existing investors IndiaMart and India Quotient also participated in the funding round, said Vyapar in a statement. Fortytwo.vc also contributed to the investment round, it added.
Vyapar said it will use the fresh capital to boost its business through digital and distribution channel. Part of the funds will also be deployed to hire and scale up the work on new revenue streams, the statement said.
Vyapar was founded in 2016 by Sumit Agarwal, Ruqiya Irum and Shubham Agrawal.
The startup provides accounting and inventory management platform for small businesses. Its services are available offline and helps businesses understand their assets and liabilities and value.
Agrawal, Co-Founder and CTO at Vyapar, said in the statement that the startup wants every small business in India to have a technology-based business management solution that is very simple to use and is accessible and affordable to all.
"A good part of business operations can be managed quite easily through tech and as a result the whole focus of a business owner can be on growth, efficiency and profitability," he added.
The statement noted that Vyapar's business has grown 5 times and its team size has expanded from around 60 to over 300 since it raised its Series A funding led by IndiaMart in 2019.
“We had initially invested in Vyapar with a strong belief in the product and in the team’s ability to execute at scale. It is really heartening to see Vyapar grow several times since then – they currently have over 1 lakh paying customers,” said Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and Managing Director, IndiaMart.
Sandeep Singhal, Co-Founder and Managing Director, WestBridge Capital, noted that MSMEs (micro small and medium-sized enterprises) are the back bone of the economy and Vyapar is on a mission to digitize the MSMEs of India and help them grow.
"We have been very impressed with Sumit and Shubham’s understanding of the challenges faced by Indian MSMEs and insights around how to solve them in the right way," added Singal.
WestBridge invests out of its evergreen fund as against a conventional private equity fund that raises a fixed sum and returns the money along with gains/losses to the limited partners towards the end of its life cycle, usually 10 years.
Earlier this month, it co-led a funding round in LEAD that catapulted the school edtech platform into the unicorn club of startups that boast of valuation of over $1 billion.
Last year, it invested in startups such as Skit, previously known as Vernacular.ai, Bijnis, a platform that puts factories and direct manufacturers directly in touch with retailers, and Otipy, a community group buying platform for fresh fruits and vegetables.
