Exclusive: Khatabook in talks to raise $100 Mn in a new round

Bookkeeping and e-commerce enabling platform Khatabook is in talks to raise capital from new and existing investors, said three people aware of the details of the deal. The fresh talks have emerged at a time when its competitors such as Dot has raised a new round while Dukaan is set to score up to $30 million in a round led by Tiger Global.

“Khatabook has been in talks with Hedosophia to raise a new round that could go over $100 million,” said one of the people requesting anonymity. “Existing investor DST Global would also participate with a significant contribution.”

According to sources, other existing investors including Sequoia are likely to join the Series C round on a pro-rata basis. If the round materializes, it would give Khatabook a strong position against its arch-rival OkCredit in the bookkeeping space and Dukaan, Dot, Bikayi in the e-commerce enablement segment.

“Khatabook will be valued over $600 million in the new round which could also be joined by more new backers,” said another source who also wished not to be named as talks are private.

This will be a 2X jump in the company’s valuation which had scooped up a $60 million Series B round at a valuation of $250-300 million. The company has raised close to $90 million across two rounds from partners of DST Global, Sequoia Capital and Tencent among others.

Caveat: The deal may or may not materialise and its terms could still change.

Queries sent to Hedosophia and DST did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post in case they do. Khatabook declined to comment on the story. 

If this deal goes through, it could be the first bet made by London-based Hedosophia in the Indian startup space. Hedosophia has around $250 million under management, and its 12 active investments include Berlin-based online bank N26 and London fintech firm SaltPay, according to venture capital analysis site Pitchbook.

In March, Khatabook acquired Biz Analyst in a deal worth $10 million to bolster its e-commerce enablement product MyStore. 

Khatabook was a pre-revenue making company until FY20. According to Fintrackr, Khatabook had recorded a total expenditure of Rs 127 crore for the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2020 without any operating revenue.

On similar lines, Lightspeed-backed OkCredit also posted nil revenue whereas its expenditure and losses stood at Rs 157.5 crore and Rs 156.6 crore respectively.