[Funding alert] Full-stack customer engagement platform Exotel raises $40M in Series D round

Bengaluru-based full-stack customer engagement platform Exotel raised $40 million in its Series D round led by Steadview Capital. The startup has, in total, raised approximately $100 million in the last 15 months across multiple debt and equity rounds.

According to the startup, the fresh fund infusion will be primarily used to build the future of customer engagement by investing more into the Middle East and Southeast Asia markets for potential acquisitions that will add more omnichannel and full-stack capabilities to the platform and enable growth.

Speaking on the association with new investor Steadview Capital, Shivakumar Ganesan (Shivku), CEO and Co-founder of Exotel, said,

"Steadview Capital operates like a startup. They’re fast-paced and are willing to take bets on bold visions like the one we have. The team we interacted with is sharp and complements one another well. We’re excited to be working with them."

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Besides raising capital, Exotel, in 2021, announced merging with Ameyo, a contact centre platform, in June and acquired Cogno AI, a conversational AI platform in November.

Exotel reported an annualised recurring revenue (ARR) of $50 million, growing at 70 percent with a target to hit an ARR of $200 million over the next four years. The startup claims to have acquired over 1,300 customers in the last 12 months, including ITC Salaam in Saudi Arabia, Bajaj Allianz, City Mall, Krazybee, Shadowfax, etc.

"Enterprises want to unify their customer journeys to deliver connected experiences across touchpoints like web chat, co-browsing, video, etc. This involves bringing together disconnected channels, bots, and applications with siloed customer data across teams. For the first time, we are enabling this over the cloud with our full-stack platform," said Shivakumar Ganesan (Shivku), CEO and Co-founder of Exotel.

Commenting on Exotel’s business, Ravi Mehta, CIO and Founder of Steadview Capital, added,

“Customer engagement is critical to businesses across India, APAC, and EMEA, especially in light of the ongoing impact of the pandemic. Exotel has grown rapidly to emerge as the clear category leader for solving such problems, enabling its customers to more easily communicate with consumers across engagement channels. Steadview couldn’t be more excited to support Exotel in the next phase of its journey.”

Recently, Exotel announced changes to its leadership in its product team. At a team size of about 1,000, the startup is targeting to increase the headcount by 200 by the end of 2022.

Bengaluru-based tech-focused investment bank, IndigoEdge, was the advisor to Exotel across transactions over the last 15 months.

Puneet Kumar, Managing Director at Steadview Capital, said,

“The importance of having effective communication strategy is increasing over time, and Exotel executed this successfully by powering communication to almost all internet unicorns in India. We like their vision of building an end-to-end communication stack to enable enterprises to engage intelligently with customers, and are thrilled to be part of their next growth phase.”