GuPShUP raises $ 60 million of shares and debt, and leaves Unicorn’s suspended position

GuPSHUPStarting commercial messages that started its journey in India more than two decades ago It became unicorn Four years ago, a new round raised more than 60 million dollars – but it maintains its new evaluation under the winding.

In 2021, GuPSHUP was raised Two financing rounds Within four months, 340 million dollars are insured from prominent investors including Tiger Global, Fidelity Management, Think Investments and Malabar Investments. These rounds – the first start starting in about a decade – is estimated at $ 1.4 billion. However, sincerity, who led the tour after her unicorn teacher, She reduced her internal evaluation From the start starting at least three times between 2023 and 2024, bring it To 486 million dollars.

The new financing round, which combines stock and debt financing from Globespan Capital Partners and Evolutionx Debt Capital, aims to help start San Francisco, which is taken by San Francisco to expand its presence through high growth markets, including India, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

The start starting will not reveal the accurate debt part, although its founder and CEO of Beerud Seth told Techcrunch that the stock part is “a little more than half”.

In 2004, GuPShup – a derived from the Indian colloquial that means “conversations” – began as a platform to help companies communicate with their customers through text messages. She gained popularity because text messages were not free at that time, and people were looking for ways to send messages to their friends and community groups. However, with the conversion of communications from the SMS service to WhatsApp and Rich Communication Services (RCS), startup moved to these ways through its Chatbot services. Now, since artificial intelligence has become a term, AI agents have appeared – programs that can perform specific tasks on behalf of users – everywhere, GuPshup began to enable companies to publish agents.

“There are many requests coming from companies. Everyone needs to build artificial intelligence agents, who work through correspondence like RCS and WhatsApp or through sound. So, building these agents, there is a great demand, and we need to support them,” Seth said.

Globally, artificial intelligence agents TractionWith startups, building them, attracting a strong investor interest. Technology giants like Amazonand GoogleAnd Microsoft They also explore how to bring more of these agents to users through their own platforms. The result: Competition is heating.

Gupshup is not seen as increasing competition as a threat. SETH referred to the large base of installation to start operating – which exceeds 50,000 customers in more than 100 countries – and its record in creating products, driven by years of experience in commercial messages, strategic acquisitions, and internal development.

“Companies cannot use simple basis models outside the shelf and place them in front of customers. They need a lot of allocation to be done, and this is where GuPshup comes. This is what we offer,” he pointed out.

Seth said that since his last tour in July 2021, it was “multiplied” in three times its revenues and grew. However, it is unclear whether this led to an increase in the evaluation, as he said, this was not the last round.

“As a founder, focus on value, and the evaluation will follow.” “We are doing ourselves as we will be a large company.”

Besides geographically expansion, starting starting to take advantage of its new financing to enhance its products, which are used in industries including cars, banking services, e -commerce, technology, media, payments, retail and travel. Its products also include clicking ads to chat, Amnesty International, Agent Assist, and Campaign.

Gupshup claims that more than 120 billion messages annually for thousands of institutions. Looking at the future, young people believe that the public subscription is the next main teacher.

“We are talking to all our advisers, lawyers, bankers, accountants, etc., to find out,” Seth said.

Upon starting, there is no specific timetable for its general inclusion, although Seth told Techcrunch that it could happen at 18-24 months.

GuPShup explores whether it should be included in Indian exchanges – a logical, strategic step, as you see the start starting in India, where WhatsApp dominates, as a more favorable market. Among the reasons: It is easier to connect her story to local retail investors, who are more familiar with WhatsApp and understand how GuPshup products, including artificial intelligence agents, work inside the platform. However, since GuPshup has been designed in the United States, the face of India will lead to tax obligations, which may require additional financing.

Seth said that the public subscription “is the only thing that we do not fully control. The evaluation depends on external factors as in the company.”