BrowserStack, a cloud-based cross-browser testing tool that enables developers to test their websites across various browsers on different operating systems and mobile devices, is reportedly being wooed by a slew of investors.
As per a report from Economic Times, the company has received interest from marquee venture funds including Sequoia Capital and Warburg Pincus. Further, Microsoft, which partnered with the company earlier this year, has also offered to invest $40 million in the company at a valuation of $400-500 million.
Interestingly, Mumbai-based BrowserStack is a bootstrapped venture, which means, the company has not raised any institutional funding.
While BrowserStack is getting many investment offers, it has not yet accepted any. The reason is said to be the company’s valuation. As per the reports, the company is looking at a valuation of $800 million to $1 billion.
In a discussion with ETTech, Ritesh Arora, co-founder of the company didn’t confirm this investment talks, but he said that they interact with venture capital firms on a regular basis to explore their choices. He said,
I’ve known the Sequoia folks for four years now and Warburg for over a year. We speak to a lot of VCs but there’s nothing substantial that has developed in terms of funding.
BrowserStack was founded by IIT-Bombay batchmates – Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal in 2011. This is the fourth venture for the duo and the first to succeed.
The platform helps developers visualize what their code will look like and how it will perform across browsers and operating systems as each browser has its nuances and the behavior of codes varies on different platforms.
The company’s annual recurring revenue is estimated to be about $40 million to $50 million. It has about 76,000 paying customers including companies like Adobe, Microsoft, Twitter, AirBnB, Spotify, and Amazon.
Indian enterprise SaaS startup space is getting the much-needed attention. For investors, this space is attractive as companies offer competitive pricing and require less upfront investment.
Freshdesk, one of India’s best-known product software makers, was valued at about $700 million when it raised a round led by Sequoia Capital in November. It is estimated to have an annual revenue run rate of $60-70 million. Other major bootstrapped Indian SaaS startups include Zoho, Wingify, RaitGain and FusionCharts.
