PremjiInvest leads $82M investment round in ServiceMax

PremjiInvest, the private investment firm of Wipro Ltd chairman Azim Premji, has led a $82 million Series F round of funding in California-based ServiceMax, Inc, which provides cloud-based field service management solutions.

The round also included new investors GE Ventures, PTC Inc., and Cloud Apps Capital besides existing investors Emergence Capital Partners, KPCB, Mayfield, Meritech, Adams Street Partners, Crosslink Capital, Questmark Partners, Sozo Ventures, and Trinity Ventures. This round brings the total capital raised by ServiceMax to $202 million.

"We have watched ServiceMax become the leader in the service arena by helping their customers use service to leapfrog their competition," PremjiInvest's US lead investor Sandesh Patnam said.

Founded in 2006 by two Indian origin tech professionals Athani Krishnaprasad and Hari Subramanian, originally as Maxplore Technologies Pvt Ltd, ServiceMax is a fast growing firm in the field service management software space which is estimated to be an $18 billion market worldwide. It claims to be the only provider of end-to end mobile and cloud-based technology for the 20 million people globally who install, maintain and repair machines across industries.

"With 400 companies relying on ServiceMax as their mobile field service management solution, we've clearly established ourselves as the global market leader. We're thrilled to secure financing that will enable us to continue investing in this massive market opportunity and fuel the convergence of field service and the Internet of Things," said ServiceMax CEO Dave Yarnold.

ServiceMax will use the new capital to grow sales, support and marketing worldwide and increase product development.

PremjiInvest, that has built a significant portfolio of over two dozen firms including Snapdeal, Myntra/Flipkart, National Stock Exchange, Tata Capital, Manipal Education and Medical Group, Jaiprakash Power Ventures, Future Lifestyle Fashions, Trent etc, has been equally active in investing in overseas firms.

ServiceMax is the fourth known international firm that it has backed over the past one year. In March itself it backed two such companies.

It led a $80 million Series C round of funding in Silicon Valley-based Cyanogen Inc, a leading mobile operating system (OS) developer which customises Google's Android OS for its clients. It also joined others in a $115 million investment round in California-based Zuora Inc, which runs a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based subscription billing and financial solutions venture.

Last year, it invested in another US-based software firm DataStax Inc.