BrazilUniqus lands second funding round to accelerate growth
Fast-growing consulting firm Uniqus has raised $10 million in Series B funding, aimed at launching the company into its next phase of growth.
Established in December 2022, Uniqus has since its inception been on a remarkable growth journey, rocketing its team to over 350 staff and opening offices in eight cities in the United States, India, and the Middle East.
In a rare move in the consulting world, Uniqus has been private equity funded from the very start, with the founding partners selling a minority stake in the firm to Nexus Venture Partners in return for a $12.5 million Series A funding.
The ambitions are big: co-founder Sandip Khetan previously told The Economic Times that the consultancy aspires to become a 1,000-person group by the end of 2027. Much of the next acceleration needed to hit that goal will be backed by its fresh capital raising, which again was led by Nexus Venture Partners (an India-US venture fund), with participation from Sorin Investments (an early-stage fund).
Uniqus currently focuses on three lines of business: financial accounting and reporting, ESG consulting, and digital transformation (which also houses a solutions business). The company operates with an efficient delivery-led model: while 80% of its revenues come from the US and Middle East, roughly 75% of its talent is based in India.
“While we are neutral and flexible in servicing clients from our talent pool between India, the US, and the Middle East, India is at the centre of our strategy in terms of delivery”, Khetan said.
Putting the funds to work
The $10 million injection will be used for the launch of adjacent service offerings, entry into new geographical markets, and continued investments in technology. People is also high on the agenda, and notably, staff that join the consulting firm are offered an equity incentive plan.
“We are heartened to see a very positive response to the Uniqus value proposition from clients, talent and the wider ecosystem, which has enabled us to scale up in a short period of time. Our clients have been encouraging us to explore adjacent solutions and high-quality talent has been approaching us with new capabilities. The current round of funding will enable us to expand our solutions portfolio, explore new markets, and further accelerate our growth plans,” said fellow co-founder Jamil Khatri.
Khatri also said Uniqus will be looking at small to mid-ticket inorganic opportunities to achieve its goals.
Khatri and Khetan both are veterans of the consulting scene. Khatri formerly was the global head of accounting advisory services at KPMG, while Khetan led EY’s financial accounting advisory services practice in India. Shortly after teaming up, they used their initial funding to snap up Sustain Plus, a boutique led by Anu Chaudhary, who now leads the ESG consulting offering of Uniqus.
Having been on board since the early days, Anup Gupta from Nexus Venture Partners said that Uniqus has proven itself as a “gamechanger” for both clients and the industry. “Uniqus leverages both technology and people to deliver a holistic and compelling value proposition for clients. We are delighted to see a new global tech-enabled consulting company take shape.”
