Whatfix Co-Founder on Finding an Enterprise Wedge in Bangalore
Khadim Batti, co-founder of Whatfix, shared that the company's initial wedge was solving its own internal product adoption problems before realizing larger enterprises had the same issue at scale. Early traction was gained by targeting product managers at multinational companies based in Bangalore. This local credibility was then used as a launchpad to expand into US and European markets, demonstrating a "land local, expand global" strategy.
- Before launching Whatfix, co-founders Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar spent three years on a different product called SearchEnabler, an SEO tool for small businesses. They pivoted after discovering customers were more interested in a guidance feature they had built to help with their own product's user adoption. - Whatfix has strategically expanded its platform through acquisitions, including purchasing the AI-powered personalization platform Airim in 2019, the learning management system Nittio Learn in 2021, and the mobile-first onboarding platform Leap.is in 2022 to strengthen its mobile capabilities. - The company has raised a total of $266 million over 10 funding rounds. Its most recent funding was a $125 million Series E round in September 2024, led by Warburg Pincus with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. - Co-founders Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar both worked at Huawei Technologies before starting their entrepreneurial journey. Initially, with their engineering backgrounds, they focused heavily on building the product and not enough on customer interaction, a lesson they applied to the successful launch of Whatfix. - The company has implemented two Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) buybacks, one in July 2021 for $4.3 million and a larger liquidity event of $58 million in October 2024 for employees and early investors. - While validating its product-market fit with its first 8-10 customers in India, Whatfix's primary go-to-market strategy was focused on the US from early on, anticipating that US-based companies would be the earliest adopters with a higher willingness to pay.
