MS Dhoni is the latest ‘active’ investor in town, bets on Khatabook – the accounting app for mom-n-pop stores

• Former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni invested an undisclosed amount in the fintech startup Khatabook.
• Khatabook, just like its literal meaning in Hindi, is an account book for small and medium businesses.
• Khatabook is available across 5,000 cities in India and has recorded cash transactions worth over ₹3.7 lakh crore in the last one year.

Former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni invested in a fintech startup, Khatabook. Dhoni, who invested an undisclosed amount, will also be the brand ambassador for the company.

Khatabook, just like its literal meaning in Hindi, is an account book for small and medium businesses. The business app helps business owners keep a check on their accounts, digitally.

“There are many new-age companies in the country, only a few like Khatabook, are making a difference at the grassroot level. Having grown up in small-town India, I saw friends and family struggle with outdated modes of doing business and tracking finances. Khatabook has had an outsized impact on the lives of India’s small merchants and retailers,” Dhoni said in a statement.

With this, Dhoni seems to adorn the cap of an active investor in the Indian startup ecosystem. Dhoni earlier invested in used cars marketplace Cars24, sports tech startup Run Adams. Additionally, he’s also the brand ambassador of fantasy gaming unicorn Dream11.

Meanwhile, with the new investment, Khatabook, which already has 2 crore registered users on its app, plans to expand and onboard 2 crore more merchants in the next 12 months.

Currently, Khatabook is available across 5000 cities in India and has recorded cash transactions worth over ₹3.7 lakh crore in the last one year.

"Khatabook's initial growth came organically and we currently have a market penetration of 25-30%. Now the idea is to drive trust and reliability at a large scale. This is why doing our brand campaign with Dhoni is a great fit. With this, we are poised at strengthening brand awareness, creating categories and increasing penetration by 50-60%,” said Ved Prakash, VP- marketing, Khatabook.

Khatabook’s competition in the sector is a latest product from Paytm which helps merchants keep a check on their accounts.

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