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Bengaluru-based sales automation platform LeadSquaredis the latest Indian startup to join the unicorn club after raising $153 million in a Series C round of funding from WestBridge Capital. The round values LeadSquared at $1 billion.

The Software-as-a-Service platform, which offers marketing automation and sales execution CRM (customer relationship management) solution, last raised $32 million led by Gaja Capital in December, 2020.

The startup said it will utilise the capital to expand to new geographies, hire talent, and make tuck-in acquisitions, Founder and CEO Nilesh Patel told YourStory. 

Founded in 2011 by Nilesh, Prashant Singh, and Sudhakar Gorti as part of their company MarketXpander Services, LeadSquared also claims to have doubled its annual revenue from Rs 100 crore for FY 21 to Rs 200 crore in FY 2022.

“With this financing, we will double down on growth investments in India and North America, start building in APAC and EMEA, 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,” said Nilesh in a statement. LeadSquared has an employee base of 1,200 across its offices in India, the US, APAC, and Africa. 

He told YourStory that the company will evaluate acquisitions in adjacent applications such as conversational AI, sales training space, specialised analytics, and customer experience, among other areas. It will also look for acquisitions to enter new geographies. 

The LeadSquared platform is used by over 2,000 businesses, primarily in the  business-to-consumer (B2C) space, across edtech, higher education, financial services, healthcare, marketplaces, and others. India continues to be its primary market, contributing nearly 90 percent to its revenues, followed by the US.

“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,” said Sumir Chadha, Co-founder and Managing Director at WestBridge Capital.

The startup has launched a new line of products over the last year including sales performance analytics product and a suite of tools to digitize application processing. 

LeadSquared joins the new crop of Indian SaaS startups which have seen continued growth momentum despite the lull in growth investments due to market signalling. AI-firm Fractal Analytics, HRtech startup Darwinbox, financial services arm of b2b marketplace OfBusiness, Oxyzo and GraphQL developer Hasura, all joined the unicorn club earlier this year.