Sequoia Capital India leads $42 mn fundraise in SaaS Labs

By Anuj Suvarna

  • 20 Jan 2022
Credit: VCCircle

SaaS Labs, a startup focused on business automation tools for sales and support teams, has raised $42 million (around Rs 315 crore) in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital India with participation from existing investors, Base 10 Partners and Eight Roads Ventures, the company said on Thursday.   

The round, which comes just four months after the Series A round, also saw participation from Silicon Valley angel investors such as Amit Agarwal, Allison Pickens, Anand Chandrasekaran and Michael Stoppelman.

The company said it plans to use the funds on research and development, to develop new products for its global users, as well as to scale newly-launched products.

SaaS Labs Software Pvt Ltd was founded in 2016 by Gaurav Sharma to develop products for sales, support and marketing teams as well as build contact centers to boost productivity.  

SaaS Labs has also entered European markets with two acquisitions of Poland-based CallPage, a call-back automation tool that enables the sales team to connect with their leads and France-based Atolia, a productivity, communication and collaboration workspace tool. Their teams will join SaaS Labs as full-time employees.  

“While we are well-capitalised, this round gives us the firepower needed to double down on what's working, hire great talent globally, launch innovative products, focus on brand marketing and get aggressive with strategic M&As. As SMBs will continue to adopt software to modernise different functions like sales, support, marketing, etc. within their business, we are confident that SaaS Labs will be able to capture that opportunity and grow 30x in the coming 5-7 years,” Gaurav Sharma, Founder and CEO, SaaS Labs said. 

Before starting SaaS Labs, Sharma was founding member of HelloSociety, which was later acquired by New York Times, he was also co-founder of Pinpuff, later acquired by Science Inc in 2012, according to his Linkedin profile.

In October 2021, SaaS Labs had raised $17 million (Rs 127.5 crore) as part of its Series A funding round from San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm Base10 Partners and Eight Roads Ventures.

SaaS Labs has two main products: Justcall and Helpwise. Justcall enables small and medium businesses (SMBs) to install a cloud-based contact center for sales or support, within minutes with native integrations with over 70 other business tools. Helpwise users can consolidate all communication streams in a single shared inbox to increase the efficiency of the customer support team. With its cloud-based experience, the company's product suite delivers near-unlimited flexibility, regardless of where the teams are physically placed or owing to remote work.

In 2021, the company's sales grew 2.5 times, mostly through organic routes. SaaS Labs' products are used by over 6000 clients, including GoStudent, Booksy, HelloFresh, Grab, and Keller Willams, to power sales and support, it said. 

Tejeshwi Sharma, MD of Sequoia India, said, “SaaS Labs is building a multi-channel customer communication platform for small and medium businesses. Through a suite of products, it offers an experience that marries the efficiency of digital and the intimacy of offline communication channels. Its flagship product JustCall, for example, has been able to drive deep impact. Customers, on average, reported time savings of 12 hours a week per agent on manual tasks while customer satisfaction improved by 30%."