Whatfix raises a whopping $125M for its in-app user guides

Kyle Wiggers
Updated ·4 min read

Digital transformation — upgrading a company's legacy apps and processes with new tech — has long been a buzzy and lucrative business. But the pandemic supercharged the market.

COVID pandemic lockdowns and the widespread move to work-from-home spurred brands relying on old technology to modernize their organizations. According to Statista, worldwide spending on digital transformation reached $1.85 trillion in 2022, up more than 16% from the previous year.

Whatfix is among the digital transformation firms that have benefited enormously from the boom. The San Jose-based company, which offers a platform that demos how to use third-party software, this week closed a $125 million Series E round led by Warburg Pincus.

CEO Khadim Batti says that the round, which also had participation from SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, values Whatfix at a figure 50% higher than its Series D valuation in 2021. Whatfix never disclosed that valuation, but my colleague Ingrid Lunden ascertained that it was close to $600 million. We can assume, then, that the Series E brings the company's valuation to around $900 million.

Batti co-launched Whatfix with Vara Kumar in 2013 after the pair met while working at Huawei. The Chinese electronics giant had just opened an office in India, near the founders' home cities.

Whatfix wasn't an overnight success. Batti and Kumar originally tried building a business around a search engine optimization tool called Search Enabler, but roadblocks kept arising — including user confusion. Few customers knew how to implement the tool's suggestions, Batti says.

"The recommendations were generally quite basic, such as the web page not having a title, but customers didn’t know how to use applications like WordPress to correct the error," he told TechCrunch. "Most were small businesses without technology know-how."

Out of this early failure sprang inspiration. Batti and Kumar decided to pivot to try their hands at a different challenge: teaching people how to use new software.

Together, the two entrepreneurs built Whatfix, which provides on-screen tutorials for around 750 apps, drawing on a database of tens of thousands of pages of documentation. The platform effectively "lays" on top of desktop and web apps to provide guidance for onboarding, suggested actions, and self-service support.

"We're able to provide single-line answers from existing knowledge repositories and present them right inside software applications, in the flow of users' work," Batti explained.

Batti says that Whatfix has over 10 million users and 700 customers, including Shell, Microsoft, Schneider Electric, Cisco, and the EU's European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The company's annual recurring revenue grew 4.5x year-over-year this year, driven by sales of its software-as-a-service plans, he says.

Whatfix occupies the software segment known as digital adoption platforms, or "DAP." DAP is massive; Gartner predicts that 70% of organizations will use a DAP by 2025. DAP vendors were generating roughly $646 million in revenue combined in 2022, and VC investments in DAP grew sixfold to $470 million that same year.

With the competition getting fiercer — SAP this month paid $1.5 billion to acquire DAP platform WalkMe — Whatfix is doubling down on expansion and diversification, Batti said.

Since its last funding round, Whatfix has rolled out connectors for customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning software, as well as a monitoring dashboard for managers to view app engagement metrics. (Batti says that these products now make up 15% of Whatfix's revenue.) Whatfix has also doubled its already-massive workforce to over 960 employees to open new offices in Singapore, Germany, Australia, and India.

Looking ahead, Whatfix, with its $280 million in total capital raised, plans to make strategic acquisitions (adding to the acquisitions of Airim, Nittio Learn, and Leap.is it has made over the last four years) and invest in product development. Like practically every company these days, Whatfix is keeping a pulse on generative AI; Batti says that Whatfix is experimenting with automated "agents" that can take actions inside certain apps, akin to robotic process automation.

"Looking ahead, the DAP market is expected to evolve toward more AI-driven, personalized experiences with deeper enterprise system integration," Batti said. "We’ve been very disciplined with our now-$265 million capital, and our ability to grow profitably while expanding within our customer base has helped us maintain strong financial health."

Is an IPO in Whatfix's future? Batti wouldn't say. But he did note that funder Warburg Pincus has a "proven track record in guiding companies to IPO and operating with public companies positions." Take that how you will.

Latest Stories

  • Brad Pitt Wins Key Arguments in Miraval Fight with Angelina Jolie, Case Proceeds Toward Trial

    A source close to Brad Pitt tells PEOPLE the court ruling "is a clear victory for Brad" in his lawsuit against Angelina Jolie over a French winery they co-owned

  • 32 Painfully Awkward Talk-To-Text Fails That Spiraled Way, Way, Way, Way, Way, Way, Way Wayyyyyy Out Of Control

    It happens to all of us.

  • China chip index nears 3-year high as TSMC order fuels self-reliance bets

    China's semiconductor index leapt close to a three-year high on Monday on bets a U.S. order halting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers could accelerate Beijing's self-reliance efforts. TSMC will from Monday suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday. Analysts said that while the move might lead to some short-term pain for Chinese firms involved in designing chips for artificial intelligence accelerators and graphics processing units, it could benefit the domestic chipmaking sector as companies would have few alternatives.

  • 3 Stocks Possibly Trading Below Their Estimated Fair Value

    As global markets react to recent political shifts and economic policy changes, many major indices are reaching record highs, driven by investor optimism over potential growth and tax reforms. Amidst this rally, some stocks may still be trading below their estimated fair value, offering potential opportunities for investors who focus on fundamentals such as earnings growth prospects and valuation metrics.

  • The fight for AI talent heats up in China, as tech employers boost pay

    A scramble for artificial intelligence (AI) talent is intensifying in China, as local tech giants dangle eye-watering salaries to hire top-notch professionals to compete in a heated AI race. Beijing-based smartphone giant Xiaomi will be hosting a special hiring session for AI experts in areas spanning AI models, computer vision, deep learning, autonomous driving and natural language processing, as well as other roles, according to a post published to its official WeChat account on Friday. The co

  • Mariachis gather in Mexico City to to break the world record in playing and singing in harmony

    More than a thousand mariachis gathered in Mexico City's main square on Sunday, to break the record of most mariachis performing in unison. (AP Video: Amaranta Marentes)

  • China's 'AI Tiger' Zhipu in race to bring enhanced features to video-generation apps

    China's state-backed unicorn Zhipu AI has introduced a series of artificial intelligence (AI) features to its video tool Ying, in a heated race with other start-ups and Big Tech companies to woo users in a growing market for AI-assisted video creation tools. After the updates, Ying will be able to generate 4K high-definition video clips as long as 10 seconds at 60 frames per second, Zhipu said in a statement. The Beijing-based firm is considered one of China's four "AI Tigers", a group of unicor

  • Boeing reaches settlement to avert civil trial over 2019 MAX crash

    Boeing reached a last-minute settlement with the family of a 737 MAX crash victim, averting a federal civil trial set for Tuesday in Chicago. The Ethiopian Airlines crash in 2019 killed 157 people. The court will meet Tuesday to inform Judge Jorge Alonso, who must approve the settlement. Beleaguered aviation giant Boeing reached a last-minute settlement Monday with the family of a woman killed in the crash of a 737 MAX jetliner in 2019, averting a federal civil trial.Three sources close to the c

  • China's Huawei Technologies seeks dismissal of US criminal charges

    Huawei Technologies asked a U.S. judge to dismiss much of a federal indictment accusing the Chinese telecommunications company of trying to steal technology secrets from U.S. rivals and misleading banks about its business in Iran. In a Friday night filing in federal court in Brooklyn, Huawei said there was no proof of a conspiracy, calling the charge part of the Department of Justice's "ill-founded" China Initiative to prosecute people and companies with ties to China. Huawei said several charges concerned activities outside the United States, while the bank fraud counts rested on a "right to control" theory of fraud that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last year in an unrelated case.

  • 9 Apple Hacks That Will Give Your Devices Longer Lives, According to Tech Experts

    Apple devices aren't cheap, so it's important to make them last. Treating them with care is a must, but tech experts have also uncovered ways to make products like iPhones, iPads and MacBooks last...

  • US dependence on Canada's oil should deter Trump tariffs, industry says

    Canada's energy industry does not expect U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's broad plans for protectionist trade measures will include tariffs on Canadian oil imports, because many U.S. refineries rely on barrels from north of the border. Some Canadian oil industry participants saw Trump's election as a positive that would stimulate energy investment across North America and could boost the value of U.S. dollars that Canadian producers receive for their crude. Canada is the world's fourth-largest oil producer and sixth-largest natural gas producer.

  • Chipotle shareholders sue over fallout from skimping on portion sizes

    Chipotle Mexican Grill was sued on Monday by shareholders for concealing how many of its restaurants were skimping on portions, forcing the chain to spend more on ingredients and hurting its stock price. In a proposed class action filed in Santa Ana, California federal court, shareholders said Chipotle failed to disclose growing unhappiness among customers with inconsistent portion sizes for its burritos and rice bowls. They said the truth came out as customers voiced dismay on TikTok and other social media, prompting Chipotle to reemphasize what CEO Scott Boatwright and his predecessor Brian Niccol called "generous portions" at its more than 3,600 restaurants.

  • ByteDance adds video generator to China's most popular AI chatbot Doubao

    TikTok parent ByteDance is adding video-generation ability to its ChatGPT alternative Doubao, as the short-video giant doubles down on a potential blockbuster in China's fast-growing generative artificial intelligence (AI) market. The Doubao chatbot - powered by its namesake large language model (LLM), the same underlying technology behind ChatGPT - has started testing a new video function that is able to convert text or images into lifelike video clips, thanks to its "outstanding semantic under

  • 3 Reliable Dividend Stocks Offering Up To 5.9% Yield

    As global markets react to the recent U.S. election results and a Federal Reserve rate cut, investors are witnessing record highs in major benchmarks like the S&P 500, driven by optimism surrounding potential economic growth and tax reforms. In this environment of fluctuating yields and evolving fiscal policies, dividend stocks present an appealing option for those seeking steady income; they offer not only potential returns through dividends but also a measure of stability amid market...

  • Is Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) The Best Video Conferencing Stock To Buy According to Analysts?

    We recently published a list of 8 Best Video Conferencing Stocks To Buy According to Analysts. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other best video conferencing stocks to buy according to analysts. An Overview of The Video Conferencing Industry Video conferencing software connects two […]

  • 5 Expenses I Wish I Had Cut Sooner While Retirement Planning

    Retiring often means saying goodbye to the daily 9-to-5 grind and saying hello to living out your golden years. The average retirement age is 65 for men and 62 for women, according to the most recent...

  • India Pesticides Ltd (BOM:543311) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Revenue Growth ...

    India Pesticides Ltd (BOM:543311) reports robust revenue and EBITDA growth, while navigating challenges from pricing pressures and inventory levels.

  • Exploring High Growth Tech Stocks In November 2024

    As global markets respond to the recent U.S. election results, with major indices like the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 experiencing significant gains, investors are keenly observing how these political shifts might influence economic growth and corporate taxation policies. In this dynamic environment, identifying high-growth tech stocks involves assessing companies that can leverage favorable tax conditions and regulatory landscapes to drive innovation and expansion.

  • The First Thing You Should Do With Your Paycheck To Build Wealth at 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60

    Are you trying to build wealth? No matter what stage of life you're at, building wealth is still an option. However, there are certain things you should do with your paycheck as you near retirement....

  • Auto supplier Continental cuts sales guidance, but shares rise on profit beat

    German automotive and industrial supplier Continental cut its annual sales guidance for the second time this year on Monday, citing weak industrial demand in Europe and North America, but it beat third quarter profit expectations. Continental's shares were up 5.6% at 0857 GMT after third quarter core profit, at 873 million euros ($932.98 million), beat consensus by about 11%.