Business-to-consumer text messaging company Gupshup on Wednesday (July 28) announced it has raised a further $240 million in follow-on funding from various investors including Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC, Tiger Global, Think Investments, Malabar Investments and Harbor Spring Capital, as well as accounts managed by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC, White Oak, Neeraj Arora and others. The latest funding round comes on the heels of the $100 million raise from Tiger Global in April, at a $1.4 billion valuation.
The company has raised $340 million so far this year. Gupshup’s annual revenue run rate for 2020 was $150 million, according to the company. Gupshup sends more than 6 billion text messages monthly with services available in India, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and the U.S.
Funding will be used to “continue executing [Gupshup’s] vision” and purchase shares from current and former employees and previous investors, the company said in the announcement. The 17-year-old company is exploring mergers and acquisition opportunities and plans to continue investing in product innovation for digital commerce.
In addition to Gupshup’s recent funding success, PYMNTS reported previously that text message marketing company Attentive had raised $470 million this spring. By June, the company had announced it is acquiring Boston-based Tone, which incorporates artificial intelligence into its “conversational” text messages.
Gupshup, too, strives to offer conversational text message communications.
“Conversations represent the new digital storefront for businesses — virtually every business will need to build them,” Gupshup Co-founder and CEO Beerud Sheth said in the announcement. “We are transforming digital commerce around the world with conversational messaging. We look forward to partnering with our new investors given their incredible track record of backing category-creating companies.”
Separately, conversational commerce for merchants took another step forward in February with the introduction of AI Annotator by conversational artificial intelligence (AI) company LivePerson, Inc.
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