Analytics startup IQLECT raises bridge round from VC firms

Bengaluru-based big data analytics firm IQLECT Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd has raised $2.5 million (around Rs 17.2 crore at current exchange rates) in a bridge round of funding led by early-stage investment firm VentureEast, according to a report in The Economic Times.

Existing investor Exfinity Venture Partners also participated in the round.

IQLECT will use the fresh capital to set up a leadership team in Bengaluru besides strengthening its engineering and sales operations, the report added.

Quoting IQLECT chief executive officer Sachin Sinha, the report said that the company is planning to shift its base to the US and is looking to hire go-to-market and tech talent for that office.

IQLECT has built a hardware-software converged platform to collect, process and visualise data in real time and offers a platform-as-a-service on cloud that can also be shipped as a converged box. The product caters to enterprises in a slew of sectors including e-commerce, infrastructure and security.

An email query sent to IQLECT’s Sinha seeking more details about the deal did not elicit an immediate response.

Previously chief technology officer of fashion e-tailer Jabong, Sinha is an Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur alumnus with 17 years of industry experience.

Besides Jabong, he also served as CTO at another apparel e-tailer, LimeRoad, and at Amazon as a senior engineering manager.

Founded in 2012, IQLECT had raised $2 million from Exfinity in July 2015.

Later, in March 2016, it secured an undisclosed amount in funding from well-known US investors, including the founders of VC firms Walden International and Riverwood Capital.

Ventureast

Ventureast has been investing since 1997. The two-decade-old firm, which has about $325 million under management, has made more than 100 investments so far.

Ventureast had achieved the first close of its sixth fund—Ventureast Proactive Fund II (VPF2) - in October 2016. The firm raised $83 million in the first round of its technology-focused fund that aims to raise $150 million in total.

Last year, the firm said it was raising a new $4 million ($26.6 crore) fund to make angel and seed investments in digital healthcare startups.

Ventureast’s investments include pharma company Gland Pharma, semiconductor firm Moschip, lending startup Kissht and Little Eye Labs, a tool for app developers which was the first Indian company acquired by Facebook.

Exfinity Venture Partners is a technology-focused VC firm that invests in early-stage enterprise IT startups. It make investments through its Rs 125-crore Exfinity Technology Fund-Series I.

The firm is led by IT industry bigwigs V Balakrishnan, Mohandas Pai, Deepak Ghaisas and Girish Paranjpe. Its investments include VR/AR firms GridRaster Inc. and Absentia Virtual Reality Pvt. Ltd. besides B2B marketing automation firm MarianaIQ, computer vision and artificial intelligence company Mad Street Den, and logistics management platform Locus.

Earlier this year, it invested in online fitness discovery platform Fitternity.