CleverTap Raises $105 million in Series D Funding Round Led by CDPQ

CleverTap, a global B2B SaaS platform for customer engagement and retention, has signed definitive agreements to raise $105M in a Series D funding round led by CDPQ. The global investment group committed $75M in this investment round which saw the participation of IIFL AMC's Tech Fund, along with existing investors Tiger Global and Sequoia India. 

As part of the transaction, CDPQ will join CleverTap's board of directors upon the closure of this funding round. IIFL AMC's investment is subject to Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) approval. CleverTap will use these funds to support its global expansion, enhance the development of its solutions and technology and hire more people to its team.

Sunil Thomas, co-founder and executive chairman, CleverTap, said that the last few months have been quite exciting for the company with the Leanplum acquisition and unveiling of TesseractDB. "With the new institutional investors coming on board, we have all that we need to grow at a faster rate while consolidating our position as the global leader in the retention space," he added. 

According to Martin Laguerre, executive vice president and head of private equity at CDPQ, the B2B start-up's subscription-based platform allows brands to maximise the lifetime value of their existing customers by engaging them in a highly personalised way. "As consumer brands are increasingly focused on customer retention and prioritise tools offering a tangible return on investment, CleverTap can maintain its global growth trajectory and help more businesses enhance their customer experience," he claimed.

Meng Ann Lim, managing director, direct private equity for the Asia Pacific at CDPQ, believed CleverTap is a fast-growing SaaS company with recurring revenue streams, top-tier financial metrics and a scalable business model with large addressable markets. "This investment is in line with our strategy to work with innovative companies that enable rapid digital transformation, especially in the Asia-Pacific region where high smartphone penetration is facilitating the digitalisation of the economy at a rapid pace," he affirmed. 

"Enterprises are increasingly looking to engage with customers in a real-time and a personalised manner across digital channels. CleverTap's full-stack approach to customer engagement allows them to perform user analytics and run personalised customer campaigns in real-time. This enables companies to improve user retention and understand user journeys across channels," added Chetan Naik, fund manager and senior executive vice-president, private equity at IIFL AMC.  

Founded in Mumbai in 2013 and headquartered in California, CleverTap's customer engagement and retention SaaS platform leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to offer a comprehensive user engagement suite that enables brands to build valuable, long-term relationships with their customers. Its subscription-based solution has been adopted by over 1,200 brands across 100 countries, representing 10,000 apps across industries, including fintech, e-commerce, subscription, on-demand, and streaming media. 

In June 2022, the company completed the acquisition of San Francisco-based Leanplum, a multi-channel customer engagement platform, strengthening its footprint in North America and Europe. The same month, it also unveiled TesseractDB, a purpose-built database designed to improve user engagement and retention for digital consumer brands.