Whatfix Lands $90M To Help Get Employees Up To Speed On Work Apps

Whatfix closed a $90 million Series D after growing by 3x in the last two years, as the amount of SaaS and enterprise applications companies need to train employees on has exploded.

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The round was raised at 3x the valuation the company received for its $32 million Series C in February of last year. While the company did not release the exact valuation for the new Series D, co-founder and CEO Khadim Batti said it is in the ballpark of $600 million.

The new financing was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Eight Roads Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Dragoneer Investment Group, F-Prime Capital and Cisco Investments. The company — founded in 2010 as an online marketing platform before pivoting in 2014 — has raised $139.8 million to date.

The San Jose-based company’s platform helps teach employees to use different enterprise software and applications while using them; bypassing the older methods of in-person training and manuals. Batti said with the SaaS application market alone growing 25 percent, companies need a platform that keeps their employees up-to-date and engaged with everything they use.

“Employees are using six to 10 applications in their stack,” he said. “Those applications are updated every three to four months. Continuous learning and training is needed.”

Digital transformation during the pandemic

Whatfix decided to raise the new money after seeing significant growth the last couple years — and especially during the pandemic as companies were scrambling to help keep employees trained on the different enterprise applications they need, Batti said. During the pandemic, Whatfix saw customers increase their usage of the platform by 150 percent.

“There just has been a proliferation of more and more SaaS applications,” said Shweta Bhatia, partner at Eight Roads Ventures. “There is a pain point — adoption is not easy.”

Bhatia said it is estimated 70 percent to 80 percent of features on enterprise apps go unused because employees do not know how to access them.

Whatfix plans to use the new funding to double down on growth and keep enhancing the platform, Batti said. The company has 500 employees across six global offices and 500 customers, including large enterprises such as Cisco and Bausch & Lomb.

The company estimates its market size at around $20 billion, and while it has competition from companies such as San Francisco-based WalkMe — which has raised more than $300 million in funding — it sees room to be a major, standalone player in the sector.

“Although the number of large enterprises is remaining the same, the amount of apps they are using is increasing,” Bhatia said. “The market is very large and there is tons of room for growth.”

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.