Course5 Intelligence Raises $53 Mn To Fuel M&A Drive

Analytics and AI solutions startup Course5 Intelligence has completed its $53 Mn funding round. The company announced the second close of the round which has been led by Nuvama Asset Management on Tuesday (June 6).

The infusion comes a few days after it announced $28 Mn funding, as part of this $53 Mn funding round.

The current close also saw the participation of Carnelian Asset Advisors. The first close of Course5’s fundraise was led by IIFL in May 2023. The startup said the funding will be used to create a war chest of around $80 Mn to be used for mergers and acquisitions.

Course5 has created a structured M&A agenda, as it will look for synergistic assets in the US, the UK and India, each in the range of $10-20 Mn in revenue.

“This growth funding round will fortify Course5’s inorganic growth plans and allow the company to leverage the synergies by adding new intellectual property (IP), capabilities, talent, and/or key client relationships,” said Course5 in a press note.

Founded in 2000, the deeptech startup offers solutions across consumer & market insights, digital, customer, marketing and supply chain analytics and enterprise AI.

Ashwin Mittal, chairman and CEO of Course5 Intelligence, said, “Recent advances in Generative AI, natural language and computer perception have completely removed the boundaries of what is possible. We want to ensure we maintain our leadership position amongst AI & Analytics solution providers by adding strategically to our portfolio to maximize our value proposition to global corporates.”

Pranav Parikh, the managing partner of Nuvama Private Equity, said, “We strongly believe that Course5 is very well-placed to benefit from this wave of acceleration, given its marquee client base, industry domain expertise and its effective delivery model. We are excited to partner with Ashwin and the Course5 team to accelerate the growth trajectory for the company and build a sustainable strong global enterprise.”

Recently, Course5 absorbed Incivus, an AI-based ad creation and optimisation startup, which provides a precise, objective and granular evaluation of all creative variables of an ad and predicts the likelihood of success.

The funding round comes when India’s startup ecosystem has witnessed a funding resurgence lately. Per Inc42 data, Indian startups raised more than $1 Bn in May 2023, up 15% compared to April. The funding momentum seems to have continued, as Indian startups raised $209 Mn last week.

Recent AI-based startup funding rounds include SwitchOn’s $4.2 Mn round in April and Entropik’s $25 Mn round in February.