SUMMARY
The round was led by Prosus Ventures, with participation from Accel, Elevation Capital, Shell Ventures, Bharat Innovation Fund and Bluehill Capital
The startup will also use the funding to shore up its product suite
The Chennai-based startup had last raised $12 Mn in a funding led by Accel in June last year
Industrial artificial intelligence (AI) startup Detect Technologies has raised $28 Mn as part of its Series B funding round led by Prosus Ventures, with significant participation from existing investors Accel and Elevation Capital.
Other existing investors such as Shell Ventures, Bharat Innovation Fund and Bluehill Capital also took part in the round.
The startup will use the funding to expand and strengthen sales and operations across international markets in North America and Europe. Detect Technologies will also invest in its product suite to scale up operations.
“We are grateful for the confidence bestowed upon us by our investors, and look forward to accelerating our market expansion,” said Detect CEO and cofounder Daniel Raj David.
Conceptualised at IIT Madras in 2013 by David, Tarun Mishra, Harikrishnan AS, Karthik R, and their professor Krishnan Balasubramanian, the cofounders came together to incorporate the company in February 2016. Detect Technologies is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup that combines AI, IoT and hardware to offer products that increase overall industrial productivity.
The startup leverages technology to offer real-time monitoring and analytics related to metrics such as equipment failures, estimated life of an asset and automation of compliance to standards.
The startup had last raised $12 Mn in funding led by Accel in June last year. Prior to that, the Chennai-based startup had raised $3.3 Mn in a Series A funding round from a clutch of investors in 2018.
The startup plans to focus its energies on increasing its client base in North America. “The company has established a presence in Houston, Texas as their North American headquarters and has signed multi-year global contracts with Fortune 500 industries,” it said in a statement.
Detect Technologies counts big names such as Adani Group, Vedanta Limited, Aditya Birla Group as well as government undertakings such as the National Thermal power Corporation (NTPC), Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and Hindustan Petroleum (HP) among its customers.
According to a report, the global AI market was valued at $93.5 Bn in 2021, which was projected to soar to $1,811.8 Bn by 2030, expanding at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.1% between 2022 and 2030.
The Indian SaaS industry has grabbed the attention of global investors. It was evident when homegrown enterprisetech startups raised more than $3.2 Bn in investments last year.
Despite the purported funding winter, many SaaS startups have continued to raise funds in 2022 as well. According to a recent report by venture capital (VC) firm Chiratae and consultancy company Zinnov, Indian SaaS startups are expected to clock an overall revenue of $116 Bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 55-70%.
In April, Bengaluru-based SaaS startup LeadSquared became the 103rd unicorn in the country after raising $153 Mn from WestBridge in a Series C funding round.
In June, SaaS platform Sourcewiz raised $2.5 Mn in its Pre-Series A funding round led by Matrix Partners India. In the same month, Spry also raised $7 Mn as part of its Series A funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures.
