LeadSquared is the sixth Indian SaaS unicorn of 2022

• LeadSquared has raised $153 million from WestBridge Capital in a Series C round.
• It is the sixth Indian unicorn this year and sixteenth startup to do so overall.
• The company now plans to expand to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Bengaluru-based sales automation startup LeadSquared is the latest software-as-a-service (SaaS) company to enter the unicorn club. The company raised $153 million from WestBridge Capital in a Series C round.

A unicorn, in startup parlance, is a company valued at over a billion dollars.

“With this financing, we will double down on growth investments in India and North America, start building in APAC [Asia-Pacific] and EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa], add new offerings to our product portfolio, and fund acquisitions. To support our growth, we plan to double our headcount in the next 18 months,” Nilesh Patel, CEO and Founder of LeadSquared, said.

LeadSquared is the sixth Indian startup to enter this elite club this year and the sixteenth startup to do so overall. The list also includes MuSigma, Druva, Icertis, Postman, Zenoti and now publicly-listed company Freshworks.

Sridhar Vembu-led Zoho Corp is not a part of India’s unicorn list as the company is still bootstrapped and has not disclosed its valuation publicly. Zoho is one of the oldest SaaS companies in India and is estimated to have a higher valuation than $1 billion.

Company	Unicorn List Entry Year	Current Valuation
Mu Sigma	2013	$1.5 billion+
Freshworks*	2018	$3.2 billion*
Druva	2019	$2 billion
Icertis	2019	$2.8 billion
Postman	2020	$5.6 billion
Zenoti	2020	$1.5 billion
Innovaccer	2021	$3.2 billion
ChargeBee	2021	$3.5 billion
BrowserStack	2021	$4 billion
MindTickle	2021	$1.2 billion
Fractal	2022	$1 billion
DarwinBox	2022	$1 billion
Uniphore	2022	$2.5 billion
Hasura	2022	$1 billion
Amagi Media	2022	$1 billion
LeadSquared	2022	$1 billion

*Freshworks is a publicly listed entity
Source: Venture Intelligence

LeadSquared is a sales automation platform, which helps more than 2000 organization globally to drive sales efficiency. The company — founded by Nilesh Patel, Prashant Singh, and Sudhakar Gorti in 2011 — claims to have clients from different industries like edtech, financial services, healthcare, marketplaces and more.

A quick survey of its website reveals that Amity University, NIIT, Byju’s, Unacademy, Clear, Aditya Birla Capital and Angel Broking are its clients. The company has raised $188 million to date, with $32 million raised in 2020 and $3 million in 2019.

Sumir Chadha, co-founder and Managing Director at WestBridge Capital said, "LeadSquared has shown a remarkable ability to scale and grow efficiently. Its core SaaS metrics are unique and best-in-class in the industry. Its focus on building an easy-to-use platform that transforms sales processes through automation delivering unparalleled efficiency has significant potential for growth in the global market.”

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