'Our mission is to userise every software': How Khadim Batti-led Whatfix is rewriting the rules with AI, IPO dreams, and a $900 mn vision

Over the last decade, Whatfix has grown from a Bangalore-based startup into one of the world's leading digital adoption platforms, helping many of the Fortune 500 firms make sense of the software chaos within their systems. Co-founded by Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar, digital adoption platform (DAP) Whatfix has now expanded its presence across the US, Europe, and emerging markets. The company has successfully positioned itself as a smart layer over complex business tools like ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), and supply chain systems. In a detailed interview with Fortune India's Manoj Sharma, Whatfix Co-founder & CEO Khadim Batti talks about the company’s journey from solving small business challenges to securing a $900 million valuation. He opens up about Whatfix’s AI roadmap, IPO plans and its core philosophy of “userisation”. 

Here are the edited excerpts: 

1. Tell us about your journey as an entrepreneur and how Whatfix came about?

Whatfix started with my co-founder Vara Kumar after we spent about a decade building BI products at Huawei. Initially, we tried to help small businesses improve their social media search reach. But customers weren’t adopting our software fully and they needed more handholding. We built a feature to help guide them, and that feature eventually became Whatfix.

It was essentially about fixing adoption issues online, and the name Whatfix came from that idea — plus the .com was available, and people liked the name. We started with small businesses and then moved to larger enterprises.

No, both of us were based in India. We formed and incorporated the company here, got initial traction in India, and always had a global mindset, aiming for the US and European markets.

2. How did you identify the opportunity in DAP space?

Initially, we built Whatfix like a community platform, but it needed heavy moderation. Then we focused on small businesses globally but realised they viewed our product as a “nice-to-have.” That’s when we moved up-market to mid-size and large enterprises, which deal with hundreds of complex software platforms like ERPs, CRMs, supply chain tools, and so on.

One study showed that large enterprises have around 926 software systems. These get heavily customised, and it's hard for employees to adapt to constant changes. Traditional training methods don’t work anymore. Whatfix became a real-time experience layer to guide users while they work, fitting in with the on-demand behaviour shift driven by platforms like Amazon, Uber, and Netflix.

3. Was this a global opportunity from the start?

Yes, this problem exists wherever there are large organisations with a complex tech stack. But we knew early adopters would mostly be in the US, where we could also price better. So, while we validated product-market fit in India with 8–10 customers, our first big push was in the US market.

Today, the US contributes 70% of our business. UK and Europe about 20-23%, and India around 3-5%.

4. How big is the opportunity in India in the years ahead?

Huge. Every large enterprise can deploy Whatfix across 30 to 100 internal tools, making the opportunity a few million dollars per company. We've expanded beyond web to mobile, desktop, analytics, and simulations (via a new product called Mirror).

The global digital adoption market was $4 billion; with our extended offerings, it's even larger now. In India, we work with ICICI, Mahindra, Comdiva and others. Globally, 85 Fortune 500 and 150 Global 1000 companies use us.

5. What were some initial challenges in building Whatfix?

The biggest challenge was awareness. Enterprises were used to classroom training and PDFs. We had to show them that digital adoption platforms like ours existed and worked better. Also, since Whatfix was a new category, customers didn’t know what to expect. We had to build playbooks from scratch for marketing, sales, post-sales ROI delivery. We even launched our internal consulting to help customers derive value.

6. What’s the company’s funding journey and current valuation?

We’ve been at it for 10 years. I’m based in Bangalore, Vara (my co-founder) moved to the US six years ago. We started with GSF Accelerator, raised seed from Helion, then an A round from Stellaris, B from F Prime, Cisco Investments, Dragoneer, C from Peak XV (ex-Sequoia), D from SoftBank, and our latest was a $125M E round from Warburg Pincus with SoftBank participation.

Valuation is around $900 million. The recent fundraise helped in three ways: stock buyback for employees and early investors, R&D investment (especially in AI), and capital for acquisitions.

7. How are you integrating AI, and how important is R&D for Whatfix?

We're evolving from an experience layer into a system of intelligence. With AI, we can understand context and user intent to help them act proactively. We've infused AI across all product lines. For instance, in analytics, users can just type a question, and Whatfix will generate dashboards. Content creation in the adoption product is also being automated.

We’re also rebuilding Whatfix with an AI-first mindset in our labs and are reimagining the platform from scratch before someone else disrupts us.

R&D is very important for us. Around 30–35% of our spend goes into R&D. We have 200 people in India and the US working across existing and new product lines. We’ve filed 23 patents (with 4-5 each year) and are consistently ranked as leaders by Forrester, Gartner, IDC, and Everest. Our clients, who are large global enterprises, expect continuous innovation and long-term commitment.

8. How does Whatfix differentiate from competitors, and your vision for India and global markets?

Whatfix differentiates itself from competitors in three ways: breadth, depth, and service. We offer the broadest portfolio, including adoption, analytics, simulation, mobile, web, and desktop. Technologically, our product adapts to various platforms with precision. Thirdly, we don’t ignore the “service” in SaaS. Our post-sales support is world-class. Many customers say we’re the best partner they’ve worked with, in any category.

Our core philosophy is “userisation”. Tech should adapt to users, not the other way around. We want to userise every software in the world to help individuals and companies maximise productivity and ROI. We’ll continue building cutting-edge tech in India, expanding R&D, and boosting local sales. Since we’re incorporated in India, we’re also aiming for an IPO here in the next 2–3 years.

9. Where does India stand in AI globally; do you think AI is a panacea for everything?

We’ve come a long way — from services to building products for MNCs and cutting-edge SaaS for Fortune 500s. We may not lead in infrastructure like the US or China, but we’re strong in applying AI to real problems. With infrastructure stabilising, India will see a surge in AI-first application startups over the next 18-24 months.