The company will use the funds to grow through digital and physical distribution channels. It also plans to increase hiring, launch new products and enable additional revenue streams. Founded in 2015, Vyapar is a mobile-first offering focussed on small businesses, providing them with digital accounting and billing solutions. The platform also allows these businesses to keep a track of inventory purchases and helps them reduce expenses while providing an overview of transactions.
“We are extremely thrilled to have WestBridge Capital on board to back us on our mission to digitize the entire ecosystem of MSMEs in India. Also, having strong participation in this round from our existing investors IndiaMart and India Quotient gives us a lot of confidence and of course expertise to become a market leader in this segment,” said Sumit Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer at Vyapar.
Vyapar had previously raised Rs 36 crore in September 2019 led by IndiaMart, with participation from IndiaQuotient and Axilor. Since then, Vyapar claims that its business has grown five-fold and its team has increased to over 300 employees from 60 previously.
“MSMEs are the backbone of our economy. Vyapar is on a mission to digitize the MSMEs of India and help them grow. We have been very impressed with Sumit and Shubham’s understanding of the challenges faced by Indian MSMEs and insights around how to solve them in the right way,” said Sandeep Singhal, cofounder and managing director (MD), WestBridge Capital.
“We had initially invested in Vyapar with a strong belief in the product and in the team’s ability to execute at scale. It is really heartening to see Vyapar grow several times since then – they currently have over 1 lakh paying customers”, said Dinesh Agarwal, founder and MD, IndiaMart.
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Currently, the market in which Vyapar operates has several players focused on providing accounting solutions for small businesses and kiranas. Others in the sector include Tencent and Sequoia-backed Khatabook, which raised $100 million in August last year from venture capital firmsTribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures leading the round.
