CDC Group leads $20 mn Series B round iMerit

iMerit Technology Services, a Kolkata based firm that labels data for artificial intelligence applications across sectors such as automobiles, technology and healthcare, has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by impact investor CDC Group. 

Returning investors Omidyar Network, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Khosla Impact participated in the round. 

The latest round takes the total capital raised by the firm so far to $20.74 million, according to VCCEdge.

The company will use the capital to expand its workforce and develop its artificial intelligence (AI) platform,it said in a statement.

“This new funding will enable iMerit to continue to provide enterprises scale and quality to a large client base in a fast-growing and evolving market,” Radha Basu, founder and CEO of iMerit, said.

Founded in 2012, iMerit offers low-cost data annotation or data labeling services to companies in overseas markets such as the US. The company’s employees manually curate and label data that is used by artificial intelligence applications to perform specific tasks.

Currently, the company has a staff strength of 3,000 people, based mainly in India, Bhutan and the US, and operates nine data centres across the globe. iMerit said it has been cash positive for the past two years.

“Our investment in iMerit underlines our commitment to back companies that are creating skilled jobs, particularly for women, in countries where they are most needed,” Nick O’Donohoe, CDC Group CEO, said. 

The CDC Group has investments in over 1,200 businesses in Africa and South Asia with a portfolio worth 5.8 billion sterling pound. 

Last year, the CDC Group participated in a $21 million round in SME lender Indifi and $150 million funding in online retailer BigBasket. Last month, it invested in homegrown impact investor Ankur Capital’s second fund. Dubbed as Ankur Capital Fund II, the fund announced its first close at Rs 240 crore (around $34 million) and has a targeted corpus of Rs 350 crore (around ($50 million). Additionally, it plans to invest over $1.5 billion this year in companies that focus on climate change and women empowerment  in emerging economies.