Fidelity investing $20M in data analytics firm AbsolutData

Fidelity Growth Partners India, the private equity arm of Fidelity Worldwide Investment, is investing $20 million (Rs 110 crore) in AbsolutData Research and Analytics, a data analytics services firm headquartered in San Francisco Bay Area with operations located in Gurgaon. With this round of investment, AbsolutData aims to scale up its global delivery footprint for advanced and Big Data analytics.

As part of the deal, Kabir Narang, director at Fidelity Growth Partners India, has joined the company's board.

AbsolutData works with several marquee clients, including Fortune 1000 organisations, among others. Analytics is a top priority for CXOs across the world and data analytics firms leverage the expertise of skilled data scientists to analyse the growing amount of data.

"We now serve some of the largest and most reputed retail, consumer goods, technology and hospitality companies across the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific. This investment will enable us to further strengthen our ability to service the increasing demand from our global clients," said Anil Kaul, CEO of AbsolutData.

AbsolutData was co-founded by Kaul, Sudeshna Datta and Suhale Kapoor in 2000-2001. A Ph.D. in Marketing from Cornell University, Kaul has over 16 years of experience in marketing, strategic consulting and quantitative modelling. He had spent four years with McKinsey & Co. in New York and Chicago before joining Anubis Inc., a data warehousing startup in San Francisco Bay Area, as a part of the four-member top management team.

Sudeshna Datta, who leads the corporate development, HR and marketing functions at AbsolutData, is an MBA in Marketing from Cornell. Earlier, she had worked with Pfizer (New York) and Kraft Foods (Chicago).

Suhale Kapoor, who leads the India operations wing of AbsolutData, has a background in international trade, industrial marketing, logistics and information management systems. The IIM-Ahmedabad graduate had also worked with Mitsubishi Corporation for over five years. Both Datta and Kapoor serve as executive vice-presidents at AbsolutData.

Commenting on the investment, Narang said, "We had prioritised business analytics as an investment theme. This sector will continue to benefit from the dramatic increase in volume of data generated by consumer devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and the increase in computing power and storage capacity in organisations."

Talking about AbsolutData, he said that the company has strong delivery capabilities and deep expertise in the attractive consumer and marketing analytics segment. "The management team continues to invest in knowledge management and institutionalise processes that will help it scale rapidly," he added.

This is the fourth investment by the PE firm this year. Earlier it had led in a $18 million investment in Bigshoebazaar India Pvt Ltd (along with Qualcomm Ventures, Catamaran Investments Pvt Ltd and Nexus India Capital II). It also led a $6.3 million investment in US-based MineralTree Inc. (along with .406 Ventures) and a $40.29 million investment in Hyderabad-based Aptuit Laurus Pvt Ltd (along with Aptuit CEO C Satyanarayana).

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)