Khatabook is a Bangalore-based Fintech company founded in October 2018 by five friends with a vision to make financing easier for small businesses. Now Khatabook is one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies globally. Also, it is India’s Leading business Management app for Small Scale businesses and Medium-scale businesses, with over 40 million downloads in the play store and app store combined in a record time.
Now let us see an overview of the company before moving on to the Khatabook Business Model.
Content Outline
- Overview of Khatabook
- Features Of Khatabook
- Is Khatabook Safe To Use?
- Khatabook Industry Data
- Founders Of Khatabook and Team
- Khatabook Mission Statement
- Khatabook Business Model and How It Works
- Khatabook Revenue and Financials
- Khatabook Funding and Investors
- Khatabook Acquisition
- Khatabook Competitors
- Challenges Faced By Khatabook
- Khatabook Future Goals
- Khatabook FAQs
Overview of Khatabook
Khatabook operates Android and IOS based apps that enable businesses to keep track of their financial transactions, credit information and accept payments online from different payment gateways and UPI apps.
Khatabook App is available in 13 Indian languages to target regional customers also.
Khatabook shares users a reminder via WhatsApp and SMS at certain intervals when money is due to be paid or collected, which enables micro, small and medium businesses to track transactions that happened safely and securely.
How Does Khatabook Works?
The App has a free “Payment Reminders” feature. With this feature, an automatic SMS is sent to your customers every time a transaction is recorded. This digital ledger app is safe and secure to use. With KhataBook, you have all the details of credit and debit entries for any number of customers across multiple stores at your fingertips on your phone. In short, this App lets merchants do business stress-free.
It manages our business and personal ledgers on our phone & computer. It reminds us of our due dates via SMS or WhatsApp, which can be the benefit or blessing of digitizing our “Khatabook”.
What Is The Meaning Of Khatabook and Tagline?
The Meaning of Khatabook is the book in which we keep our financial records.
Tagline Of Khatabook is Business Hua Easy!
Features Of Khatabook
- The Khatabook app allows you to send free SMS to your customers to inform them about outstanding payments.
- You have the option to send Whatsapp messages to your customers to remind them about pending payments.
- To reduce the hassle, Khatabook conveniently manages the transactions from multiple payments Apps in its App.
- Khatabook App can also maintain multiple tasks in one go and send the Invoice of each transaction to you and your customer.
- All digital transactions, accounts, and notes are locked and securely protected within the App itself.
- Your data is protected and only used to improve the Khatabook service.
Is Khatabook Safe To Use?
Yes, It is 100% Free, Safe and Secure for all businesses to maintain their customers’ accounts.
Khatabook Industry Data
In 2020, Khatabook enabled dealers in 95% of Indian districts with more than 150 million customers. Based on the Indian MSME data, Khatabook conducted research and analysis on the credit behavior of people across the country and studied the impact of Covid 19 on small businesses.
Here is a snippet of what they found:
- Business volume on credit is 45% higher in South Indian states than the national average.
- Loans extended by Khatabook merchants fell 40% in the first covid months. They have recovered to 80% of pre-pandemic levels by December.
- The average time taken to recover debts has increased by 25% for Khatabook traders at COVID.
- Sectors such as travel, construction, and apparel were hit harder in 2020.
Founders Of Khatabook and Team
Founded in 2018 by Ashish Sonone, Dhanesh Kumar, Vaibhav Kalpe ( Quits ), Jaideep Poonia, and Ravish Naresh, Khatabook helps small business owners manage their business and personal loans.
The story dates back to 2016 when Ravish Naresh and their team of college friends launched a digital expense manager app, Kyte.ai. The App helped users understand their spending patterns based on their SMS notifications. Kyte.ai had good traction initially but did not achieve the expected growth scale. Also, the team found that all its users lived outside major cities.
Their research found that first-time users online were not engaged in digital transactions and still relied on traditional writing khatas or ledgers in the book. According to Ravish, they wanted to develop something that people wanted and then build a business on it.
Thus, the idea for Khatabook was born, and they started working on a simple cash management app and named it Khatabook. The owner company of Khatabook is Kyte Technologies.
Khatabook Team
Khatabook has over 310 employees for August 2021. and Ravish Naresh leads the company as CEO,
Khatabook Mission Statement
The mission statement of Khatabook says, ” Empowering Udhari Khata ( Book-Keeping )”.
Ravish Naresh, CEO of Khatabook, Said in an Interview
Started with a vision of transforming India’s small shops, today, we are the most significant player in the small business segment digitizing a sector that forms the backbone of our economy. We are looking to work closely with the government and financial institutions to strengthen our market leadership and help MSMEs increase their income while making them more efficient and competitive.
Khatabook Business Model and How It Works
Khatabook whole business model relies on a mobile app that helps small merchants digitize their accounting and balance tracking. Khatabook helps reduce the burden of keeping and accounting paper account books. It’s like having a Khata in your pocket.
KhataBook business model is to simplify tracking credits and debits in businesses, and their motto is to make India Come Online.
It is 100% free and secure for all businesses, allowing shopkeepers to capture credit (Jama) and debit (Udhaar) from customers.
But As of now, KhataBook has no revenue stream at present.
Ravish Naresh, CEO of Khatabook, said they are now developing the App to provide a complete financial solution for small businesses. The startup plans to bring several new features to the platform, and UPI payment is next on the agenda.
Khatabook Revenue and Financials
As mentioned above, Khatabook has no revenue at this time.
In 2020, Khatabook had active merchants in 95% of Indian districts, recording $100 Billion in transactions with 150 Million customers.
- Khatabook recorded “0” ( ZERO ) operating revenue in FY20
- Khatabook recorded an increase of 84.14% in total expenditure, i.e. Rs 127.21 crore in FY20.
- Khatabook’s losses increased by 84.71%, i.e. Rs. -126 Cr. in FY20.
Financials
Revenue For FY19: NIL and Revenue For FY20: NIL
Total Expenses For FY19: Rs 1.5 Crore and Total Expenses For FY20: Rs 127.21 Crore
Loss For FY19: Rs 1.47 Crore and Loss For FY20: Rs 126 Crore
NetCash Outflow From Ops For FY19: Rs 1.96 Crore and NetCash Outflow From Ops For FY20: Rs 103.42 Crore
Growth was excellent before the lockdown due to the pandemic, but it slowed during the lockdown in line with other external factors. With the relaxation of the lockdown, the company began to reviving the business steadily. The growth was faster among users in tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India.
As a very relevant offering for merchants in the pandemic, the company also introduced the MyStore App, allowing businesses to put their business online in just 15 seconds and continue it through their preferred communication channels.
Within a month of its launch, more than 2.5 million merchants across India have installed MyStore. Khatabook has also created the ability to work from home and offer 24/7 call center support to merchants. As of now, the Khatabook revenue model depends on funding from its investors.
Khatabook Funding and Investors
Khatabook has received a total of $111.5 million in four funding rounds. The most recent funding was raised in a Series B round on May 20, 2020, around $60 million.
Twenty-nine investors fund Khatabook. Kunal Shah ( CEO Of CRED ), Tencent Holdings, and Better Capital are among them.
Date Round Amount ( $ ) Lead Investors
20th May, 2020 Series B $60 Million B Capital Group
1st October, 2020 Series A $25 Million Disclosed
30th September, 2020 Series A $25 Million Disclosed
19th April, 2020 Seed Round $1.5 Million Surge
Khatabook valuation is estimated to be around $275 million to $300 million.
Khatabook Acquisition
Khatabook has acquired Biz Analyst on Mar 25, 2021. They acquired Biz Analyst for $10M.
Khatabook Competitors
OkCredit
OkCredit simplifies credit account management for shop owners and their customers.
Instamojo
Instamojo is an on-demand payments platform that enables entrepreneurs to build, manage, and grow their businesses online.
Founded in 2012 and based in Bengaluru, Instamojo is a convenient and customizable payment gateway solution that integrates seamlessly with websites through viable APIs. When it comes to online payments, users usually look for security, transaction speed, and transparency. Instamojo offers all that and more.
RazorPay
Razorpay is a platform that enables businesses to accept, process and disburse payments.
Paytm
Paytm is an Indian multinational technology company specializing in digital payment systems, e-commerce, and finance, headquartered in Noida. Paytm is currently available in 11 Indian languages and offers online use cases such as mobile recharge, utility bill payment, travel, movie and event booking, and in-store payments at grocery stores, fruit and vegetable shops, restaurants, parking lots, toll booths, pharmacies and educational institutions using the code Paytm QR. As of January 2018, Paytm was valued at $10 billion.
Others are Bharatpe, PayMate, Obopay, Working Papers, and Simply Vyapar Apps Pvt LTD.
As per the latest report, Google pay and Phonepe are trying to enter the small-scale business market.
Challenges Faced By Khatabook
In the early days of Khatabook, there was a shortage of money as any other new startup. After acquiring Khatabook, the CEO realized he needed to get serious about funding options.
In the Series A stage, they struggled a bit with funding. Growth hit them quickly, so the seed round was in 5 bridges. It was the highest in funding history for Sequoia.
Ravish Naresh, the CEO, and Co-Founder of Khatabook said in an Interview
“Well, the struggles were mainly financial. We knew we were working on something important, and we kept going. It was often difficult to imagine the future of our initiatives without funding. Still, perseverance got us to where we are today,” said Ravish Naresh, the CEO, and Co-Founder of Khatabook.
He also said that the adoption of their product depends not only on the visibility and convenience of the App but also on educating users, not only about the App but also about the use of digital technology in general. The biggest hurdle was convincing offline shop owners to go online and educating them on digital transactions.
Breaking away from the convention is understandably tricky and daunting for retailers who operate primarily offline. Convincing traditional businesses to embrace digital remains a significant challenge for them.
“It’s important to develop something that people want and then try to build a business around it, and that’s what the team did,” Also Added Ravish in an Interview.
Khatabook Future Goals
The company plans to expand its service portfolio and achieve two to three times business growth by providing more relevant solutions and value to users. Khatabook remains committed to the Indian MSME segment and will add services to streamline and simplify business processes for merchants.
“Being committed to a goal is essential for business directions and decisions. One thing the pandemic has taught us is that we need to think through the most unlikely scenario and ensure that we are relevant in all possible scenarios or are agile enough to change our direction depending on the need of the hour,” says Ravish, CEO of Khatabook in an Interview.
Khatabook FAQs
Who is The Brand Ambassador Of Khatabook?
Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the brand ambassador of Khatabook after investing an undisclosed amount in Khatabook.
How does Khatabook make money?
The KhataBook revenue model doesn’t make money as of now. Ravish Naresh says they are now developing the App to provide a complete financial solution for small businesses to earn money using their business model.
Who are the Khatabook app Founders?
Khatabook was founded by five members named Ashish Sonone, Dhanesh Kumar, Vaibhav Kalpe ( Quits ), Jaideep Poonia, and Ravish Naresh ( CEO Of Khatabook ) in 2018.
Who is the owner of Khatabook?
Ravish Naresh is the Co-founder and CEO of Khatabook.
Why is Khatabook Free?
Khatabook main goal is to get small-scale businesses online. If they started charging since the beginning, they could have not 40 million users in record time. But Khatabook is trying to compensate for this by developing a complete payment solution, said the CEO of Khatabook Ravish Naresh.
What is the Valuation Of Khatabook 2021?
Khatabook valuation is estimated to be around $275 million to $300 million.
