SaaS startup Icertis raises $150 million funding from Silicon Valley Bank

Contract management Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) unicorn Icertis has raised $150 million in funding comprised of a revolving credit facility and convertible financing from Silicon Valley Bank.

The company plans to utilize the funds to accelerate the application of transformational technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Blockchain to deliver material, unique, and consequential value to customers.

The Icertis Contract Intelligence platform helps companies structure critical commercial, legal, and operational data within contracts and connect that data to surrounding procurement, ERP, HCM, and CRM systems.

The debt comes after Icertis raised an undisclosed amount of funding from German software giant SAP SE in January.

The Seattle and Pune-based tech unicorn raised $80 million in its Series F round, led by existing investor B Capital Group with participation from other investors. The round valued the startup at $2.8 billion.

In September 2022, Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund bought shares from Icertis’s existing investor Eight Roads at a valuation of around $5 billion. Icertis did not share an official comment on the development.

Founded in 2009 by Samir Bodas and Monish Darda, Icertisis is an enterprise contract management platform in the cloud that solves hard contract management problems on an easy-to-use platform. Icertis’ other investors include B Capital Group, Greycroft, and Premji Invest.

“We continue to see strong momentum with our clear value proposition as we help customers become more agile, drive efficiencies, and respond to market challenges like inflation, sanctions, economic slowdown, and supply chain disruptions,” said Rajat Bahri, CFO of Icertis.

Its AI-powered Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) platform manages global contracts for firms like AbbVie, Airbus, Apple, BASF, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co, Microsoft, and Wipro.

“Contracts are the foundation of commerce, sitting at the intersection of almost all business processes. Understanding and harnessing the underlying data can drive material business impact to a wide range of enterprises. We’re proud to support the Icertis team as they build an enduring and industry leading enterprise software company,” said Bob Blee, Head of U.S. Technology Corporate Banking at Silicon Valley Bank.

Amid a sharp funding crunch in India and across the world, there has been an uptick in alternative funding models like venture debt. Icertis is among the first unicorn startup to raise debt.

In August, digital payment solutions provider MobiKwik raised debt of Rs 35 crore from Blacksoil Capital following a delay in launching its initial public offering (IPO).

Recently, cloud-kitchen unicorn Rebel Foods raised Rs 75 crore venture debt from Alteria Capital.

Icertis, too, was mulling an IPO and waiting for the right market environment, Darda told Moneycontrol in an earlier interaction.

“The economy is not very conducive for equity fundraise…we are right now very focussed on building our business and making it better,” he said.

Darda said in the next three years, the company would focus on improving its net revenue retention rate and grow its market share in the US, the UK, and other markets, including India.

The company has more than 90 percent of its businesses in the US and the UK.

“Our focus is to build our business better. In fact, the recession is helping us and no one is cutting costs on CLM…And we will continue to hire however we will not hire at the rate of growth or rate at which we hired last year. We will not double our hiring. Cost-cutting is definitely a path to profitability and building efficient business,” he said. Moneycontrol