[Funding alert] Upekkha’s SaaS-focused UP Funds raises $9M from WestBridge Capital

Upekkha, an accelerator and early-stage fund for SaaS startups, on Friday said WestBridge Capital made a $9 million investment into UP Funds, the startup's SaaS-focussed rolling fund on AngelList USA.

With this investment, WestBridge joins hands with Upekkha to help Indian SaaS companies expand their global footprint.

Shekar Nair, Partner and Co-founder, Upekkha, said,

“India SaaS has seen phenomenal growth in the last five years. By 2025, it is positioned to reach $30 billion in revenue and double its global market share to eight percent. Upekkha is leading this growth, having enabled 72 SaaS startups to go global over the last four years.”

Over four years, Upekkha, founded by Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, Shekar Nair, and Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan, has accelerated 72 startups, of which seven of the first 10 have crossed $1 million in ARR profitably. 

Launched in January 2021, UP Funds help SaaS companies overcome early-stage bottlenecks with founder-friendly funding that protects their future options. In 2021, UP Funds invested $100,000-$200,000 in 10 startups and also participated in a Series A round of one of its high-growth startups.

This year, UP Funds will invest in 60 startups across three cohorts of the Upekkha accelerator programme.

“When we started WestBridge 20 years ago, we wanted to help Indian startups go global. Before Upekkha, India lacked a strong ecosystem and platform focused on helping early-stage SaaS founders build successful and large businesses. Today, we see Upekkha as a key partner, bridging that gap for early-stage SaaS founders who want to go global while staying rooted in India,” added Sumir Chadha, Co-founder and MD at WestBridge Capital, and a lead investor in UP Funds.

Investment firm WestBridge Capital, which manages over $5.5 billion of capital, focuses primarily invests in companies headquartered in, or with a significant nexus to India or South Asia, or led by Indian entrepreneurs or with business linkages to India, for the long-term, whether they are public or private. To date, WestBridge has led investments in over 120 companies.