SaaS startup Facilio secures Series A funding from Tiger Global

Facilio, a company which makes facility management software, has raised $6.4 million (around Rs 45 crore at current exchange rates) in a Series A round of funding led by US-based investment firm Tiger Global.

The Atlanta- and Chennai-based company said in a statement that existing investor Accel had also participated in the round.

Facilio said the fresh capital will help the company further consolidate and strengthen its presence across the Middle East, US, and Indian markets, as well as expand into new territories.

Founded last year by former Zoho employees Prabhu Ramachandran, Rajavel Subramanian, Yogendra Babu and Krishnamoorthi Rangasamy, Facilio offers real-time facilities management to commercial real estate owners.

The company uses Internet of Things and artificial intelligence (AI) to “predictively optimise operations and sustainability.” It offers its products on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis.

“Buildings today need agility to adapt to a rapidly transforming landscape. Legacy systems, high upfront costs and long implementation cycles of traditional facility management software vendors are bogging down clients with their inflexibility,” said co-founder Ramachandran. 

“There is a definitive shift towards embracing an IoT and AI-led software system that empowers the built environment with speed and agility to improve efficiencies,” he added.

The company has close to 35 employees — mostly in Chennai — working with the software development department. Facilio claims to have 12 clients so far. 

It competes with legacy players like IBM, Oracle, SAP and Microsoft.

Around May last year, Facilio had raised $1 million in a seed round from Accel.

“Bringing data-driven efficiencies to building operations and enabling a superior occupant experience is the future of commercial real estate,” said Lee Fixel, partner at Tiger Global in a statement.

Tiger Global

The investment firm is one of the most prolific venture capital investors in India with around 50 firms in its portfolio. It has backed unicorns including e-commerce major Flipkart, classifieds platform Quikr and ride-sharing firms Ola and Uber.

It has drastically slowed its pace of investments over the past couple of years as part of efforts recoup at least a part of the $2.5 billion it has invested over a decade.

Over the past year, Tiger Global has offloaded a significant chunk of its stake in Flipkart to Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and US retail giant Walmart, which in May agreed to acquire the Indian e-tailer for $16 billion.

Its other notable investments include e-tailer ShopClues, hostel chain Zostel, online grocery delivery Grofers, logistics startup Delhivery, music app Saavn, news app InShorts, online tutoring platform Vedantu, and deals app Little.

Last month, the Financial Times reported that Tiger Global had raised $3.75 billion for its latest venture capital fund, Tiger Global Private Investment Partners XI.