Accel, Nexus Venture lead seed round in industrial services platform VenWiz

VenWiz, a business-to-business (B2B) platform focused on industrial services, has raised $3 million (about Rs 21.8 crore) in a seed fundraising exercise.

The funding round in VenWiz has been led by Accel India and Nexus Venture Partners, it said in a statement. Other participants include Titan Capital, Five9 executive Anand Chandrasekaran and former Reliance executive Rajendra Singh Mehta.

Bengaluru-based VenWiz, operated by VenWiz Technologies Pvt. Ltd, was set up last year by Rajesh Reddy and Sandesh Paturi, who have worked at companies and firms including ITC Ltd, McKinsey, Dupont and Capillary.

“Service vendors play a strategic role in the success of a manufacturing unit for driving scale of production or efficiency. Yet, their journeys, in combination with shop-floor managers, have not changed for long and remained digitally underserved,” Reddy said.

The startup says its platform focuses on transforming the discovery, procurement and execution of industrial B2B services, with a focus on manufacturing and allied sectors. It aims to address inefficiencies in existing systems by organizing end-to-end service engagements for factories.

The company will use the capital it has raised for talent acquisition, enhance its technological infrastructure and expand its business.

“Having fast access to reliable and cost-effective service providers will become a key factor for companies in ensuring business continuity and healthy operating margins,” said Accel partner Barath Shankar Subramanian.

Investors

Accel has been an active investor in India’s startup ecosystem across several sectors. It struck its biggest bet when it started with an $800,000 (about Rs 5.8 crore) investment in Flipkart and continued to back the company until its acquisition by Walmart, which valued it at more than $21 billion (about Rs 1.52 lakh crore).

In December 2019, the firm raised $550 million (about Rs 4,000 crore) under a new India-focused fund to make seed and early-stage investments. That came three years after its fifth fund where it had raised $450 million (about Rs 3,270 crore).

Other Accel portfolio companies that primarily operate in the B2B space include risk and compliance management platform VComply, packaging materials marketplace Bizongo, construction-focused Infra.Market and conversational AI firm Mihup.

Meanwhile, Nexus Venture Partners was set up in 2006 and is also among the most active VC investors in the country. The firm makes investments in India and the US.

According to its website, it typically acts as the first institutional investor in a company, backing a firm in its seed and Series A funding round. B2B firms in its portfolio include Infra.Market, grocery platform Jumbotail, sales productivity startup Nektar.ai and data protection and management firm Druva.