Gupshup, the conversational messaging platform based in San Francisco, has secured 60 million dollars in fresh funding. The round was led by Globespan Capital Partners, with additional debt financing from EvolutionX Debt Capital.
The new capital will be used to scale Gupshup’s AI-powered customer engagement platform and expand its reach across India, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. Gupshup is also considering shifting its domicile to India in preparation for a possible public listing within the next 12 to 24 months.
“We’re talking to advisors and exploring things. Any company like ours, that has been around for a long time, has scale, and is profitable, is a good candidate to get listed,” said Beerud Sheth, founder and CEO of Gupshup.
Founded in 2004, Gupshup started as a messaging API and bot infrastructure provider. It now offers a full suite of tools that help businesses automate conversations across various platforms, including WhatsApp, voice, mobile apps, and websites. The platform claims to process over 120 billion messages annually for more than 50,000 businesses across 130 countries.
Gupshup’s customer base is made up of about 60 per cent large enterprises across sectors like ecommerce, retail, payments, media, travel, automotive, and banking. The rest are small and mid-sized businesses.
India remains the company’s largest market, contributing around 60 per cent of total revenue.
The fresh funding follows Gupshup’s push for operational efficiency. The company confirmed in April that it had laid off around 300 employees over the past two years, reducing its team from 1,500 to around 1,000. This move came after a period of rapid growth driven by acquisitions and talent expansion.
“Every business tries to scale without raising costs. AI allows us to improve productivity and revenue per employee,” Sheth added.
Gupshup’s acquisition spree in the conversational AI space includes companies like AskSid, Knowlarity, Dotgo, Active.ai, and OneDirect. Its backers include Tiger Global and Fidelity Investments. In 2023, Fidelity reportedly marked down its valuation of Gupshup by over 37 per cent to 876 million dollars.
With this latest round, Gupshup has raised a total of 200 million dollars in primary funding and 250 million through secondary transactions.
The company’s main competitors include Twilio, Yellow.ai, and Haptik.
“Gupshup has turned the vision of conversational AI into an enterprise-scale reality,” said Andy Goldfarb, cofounder and managing partner at Globespan. “From India to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, its AI agents are transforming how businesses engage users.”
