Khatabook is in talks to raise $20 million in Series A funding from DST Partners’ fund Ribbit Capital and Sequoia Capital, according to two people in the know of the matter.
More than 20 angel investors including prominent investor Gokul Rajaram, Jitendra Gupta, the founder of Citrus Pay, and Kunal Shah, CEO of Cred, are also likely to participate in the round.
The startup, which makes accounting and business record-keeping simple for small merchants and entrepreneurs, may also get an additional $5 million from Chinese investors.
“The round is ongoing and commitment from existing investors is already in,” said a source familiar with the developments.
When contacted, Ravish Naresh, the chief executive of Khatabook, declined to comment. Other investors did not respond to ET’s emails seeking comment.
The company, which was part of Sequoia’s accelerator programme Surge, had raised $4 million from Y Combinator, InfoEdge and, earlier.
ET reported a few weeks previously that US-based investment firm Tiger Global led a $15 million round in OkCredit, which also offers simplified book-keeping to small merchants.
Khatabook offers a smartphone-based application that helps the entrepreneur with payment reminders, which are automatically sent to customers and helps in accounting as well. The aim is to simplify the lives of more than 50 million shopkeepers in the country by keeping track of all their transactions and payments.
Indian tech startups, who are trying to digitise their business processes and smoothen operations, have found a new area of interest in offline businesses.
Large payment companies such as Paytm, Reliance Jio and others too are trying to target local kirana stores for new business opportunities.
As of April this year, Khatabook had more than 1.2 lakh active merchants on its platform, posting 40% growth month-on-month.
Khatabook was originally built by Vaibhav Kalpe. Kyte Technologies acquired the company in October 2018, with Kalpe joining the firm.
Kyte Technologies was founded by Ravish Naresh, Jaideep Poonia, Dhanesh Kumar and Ashish Sonone, all graduates of IIT Bombay. Ravish Naresh was the cofounder of property listing website Housing.com.
