Bootstrapping Success: How Wingify Did It

Inside the SaaS firm's journey, from humble beginnings, to serving 5,000 customers, to the deal with Everstone

- Shadma Shaikh

Vinash Raghava's phone began buzzing incessantly late on 23 January as message after message poured in. Curious, Raghava, the man behind SaaSBoomi, a community of SaaS (software as a service) founders, picked it up to see what the commotion was all about.

It turned out that private equity firm Everstone Capital had announced it was buying an 80% stake in Wingify, a bootstrapped SaaS startup founded by Paras Chopra and Sparsh Gupta. And SaaSBoomi's more than 6,000 SaaS founders were agog at the development.

"Sparsh and I are a part of 17 mutual WhatsApp groups and when the news of the stake sale was announced, an atmosphere of congratulatory cheer broke out among SaaS entrepreneurs across India," said Raghava.

While details of the consideration are not public, the deal valued Wingify at approximately $200 million. It marked the culmination of a short but remarkable journey by the Delhi-headquartered company, which had been set up in 2009. In just over a decade and a half, Wingify has established a global presence, serving over 5,000 enterprises, including many in the US, Canada and Europe.

The startup's revenue surged 30.8% in 2023-24 to ₹288.61 crore from ₹220.6 crore in the previous year. This was accompanied by a 30% year-over-year increase in profits, according to its consolidated financial statement, filed with the Registrar of Companies.

Wingify had achieved all of this on its own steam. And that drew the attention of Everstone, which viewed its global market potential, strong profitability and robust technology platform as key differentiators.

"Software startups in India have traditionally been a VC (venture capital) play," Sandeep Singh, managing director of Everstone, told Mint. "We were quick to move with Wingify because it ticked all the boxes that we were looking for."