Software-as-a-service (SaaS) unicorn Icertis has doubled its investment in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the last one year and plans to scale it further in the next 12 months.
“Our GenAI investment is a comprehensive effort that encompasses training, tools, engineering and more to harness the technology’s full potential within our organisation and for our customers,” Monish Darda, chief technology officer (CTO) and co-founder, Icertis, told FE. “Expanding our capabilities and reach in this area is a priority,” he added.
This will include further investments across talent, technology and training programmes, the company said.
The Bellevue-headquartered company was founded by Darda and Samir Bodas in 2009 and offers contract life cycle management (CLM) services. It achieved the milestone of $250 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) last year. It is also reportedly the only pure-play CLM management company in India to reach the milestone. “Going from $10 million to $250-million ARR is the toughest for any company,” the co-founder said.
The two key reasons behind the surge in revenue, he said, were leveraging GenAI and the increased demand for CLM services during tough times. “The domain we are in – CLM in general and especially contract intelligence – does three things. It saves money, reduces risk and increases compliance. During any headwind, when companies cut down costs, they invest in technology that helps them do these three things,” he said.
Another reason was the introduction of GenAI copilots in the middle of the slowdown, Darda added. The company has since then been scaling up its GenAI offerings.
In May 2023, it launched Icertis ExploreAI – its next-generation AI-powered contract intelligence partner – with generative, assistive, natural language capabilities. The company claims that Icertis Copilots are today the fastest-growing products in the business, marking a new milestone following their introduction as the first GenAI applications for enterprise contract management in July last year.
Icertis is backed by investors, including B Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, SoftBank and Greycroft, and counts Mercedes-Benz, Airbus, Accenture, Microsoft, Google, Lupin, Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant, among others, as its clients. Around 30% of the startup’s clients are Fortune 100 companies.
Icertis employs a global workforce of more than 2,000, with approximately 80% based in India. Additionally, it employs around 900 engineers in the country. It plans to continue hiring in FY25 as it invests back into the business. “In particular, we are prioritising customer-facing and engineering teams so we can meet and exceed the needs of our customers,” Darda said.
The startup also aims to expand to Japan and West Asia. At present, it is equally divided between the US and the rest of the world in terms of presence. “The US is a big market for us and so is Europe. We have offices in Australia. And of course, we are working in India and also have customers here. So, the only two places that we want to expand to at some point is Japan and then the Middle East (West Asia),” the co-founder said.
The SaaS unicorn last raised funding in October 2022, with Silicon Valley Bank leading the $150-million funding round. The startup said it has no plans to raise funds anytime soon. “We have a lot of dry powder,” Darda said.
The co-founder, however, believes that more funding will be coming in for SaaS startups in India this year. “People are conscious, but a lot of money will be invested in good companies, companies with a good GenAI story, especially fundamental, foundational large language models,” he said.
Darda also believes the overall market for CLM will keep increasing. “CLM is required by almost every company, large and small. It’s, in fact, even required by individuals. You want to manage your contract and not forget about the EMI, the penalty and the late charges. So, be it an individual or an enterprise, you still need CLM,” he said.
Darda added that Indian companies are becoming increasingly professionally-run and the CXOs understand the need for a good enterprise-level CLM system to run their business. “The Indian market is growing. Not just the private sector, but now the public sector is also adopting CLM. I think all of that is a huge playground for us to get a good CLM system in place,” he added.
