AI-first Robotics Startup Perceptyne Raises $3m Co-led by Endiya Partners and Yali Capital

Perceptyne, a deeptech AI-first robotics startup, announced today that it has secured USD 3 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Endiya Partners and Yali Capital with participation from Whiteboard Capital and notable angels.

Perceptyne is an emerging leader in the space of AI driven, semi-humanoid robots for industrial automation. The funding will be used for accelerating product development, customer acquisition and growth. The company is working closely with manufacturing giants in automotive and electronics.

Perceptyne’s products are designed to perform tasks demanding human-like dexterity, such as product assembly & packaging. To accomplish this, the startup is building a vertically integrated full stack robotics platform centered around AI.Perceptyne’s flagship products, PR-34D and PR-9D, are dual-arm and single-arm robots with integrated computer vision & AI, multi-modal sensing and highly articulate end-effectors suited for manufacturing / assembly line applications. 

Perceptyne’s integrated approach will help manufacturing companies accelerate robotic automation efforts by dramatically reducing integration time (quarters to weeks) and implement automation without changes to their assembly lines.

Perceptyne was founded by IIT Madras & BITS alumni Raviteja Chivukula, Jagga Raju Nadimpalli and Mrutyunjaya Nadiminti. The team has rich experience in designing, manufacturing and selling deep-tech products for the Aerospace, Automotive and Electronics industries.

Raviteja Chivukula, CEO & Co-founder, Perceptyne, said, “AI has been making huge strides in the digital world with more compute being available, complex models being built and large amounts of data being collected. Leveraging these advances in the world of manufacturing automation requires a different class of robots - those that can sense the real-world better and are articulate enough to execute AI inferencing granularly. Perceptyne is building automation systems at this intersection - those that combine AI models with dexterity, multi-modal sensing and articulate actuators. We believe that this will revolutionize manufacturing by making many more applications automatable.”

Raghav Gupta, Vice President, Endiya Partners, commented, “The time has come for an AI-first robotics company which is building for manufacturing automation. Perceptyne is addressing the critical need for a drop-in, generic automation solution that learns through AI-led tele-operation. Considering the tailwinds behind Make in India, and Perceptyne team’s capability, we believe there is much to be excited about.“

“We are excited about the potential of Perceptyne’s unique multi-faceted technology to deliver robotic solutions that are precisely tuned to the needs of sunrise sectors of India’s growing economy such as electronic manufacturing. We are very happy to partner with the talented and innovative team at  Perceptyne and we believe that they are well equipped to address the opportunities available at the intersection of robotics and AI”, added Karthik Madathil, Partner at Yali Capital.

The industrial robotics opportunity is vast, with the global market estimated to reach USD 41 billion annually by 2030, registering a CAGR of 12.3%. This growth fueled by global labor shortage and increased reshoring presents a strong global opportunity for AI driven robotics companies. In addition, the manufacturing sector in India is poised for rapid growth due to the China+1 strategy and aided by government push through schemes like PLI. Perceptyne is well positioned to meet this surging demand for automation both global and domestic. 

Aquaculture Fintech Platform AquaExchange Raises $3 Mn From Endiya Partners and Accion Venture Lab

AquaExchange’s IoT-powered technology helps India’s shrimp and fish farmers improve productivity and increase profits

AquaExchange, a full-stack, tech-driven platform serving India’s multi-billion-dollar shrimp & fish ecosystem, has raised $3 million in Pre-Series A funding from Endiya Partners and Accion Venture Lab, with participation from existing investors. The company will deploy the capital in strengthening its technology, e-commerce operations & expanding its farm automation footprint to over 1 Lakh acres of farms by FY23 ending March 2023.

AquaExchange’s vision is to improve farmer productivity and livelihoods by ushering in AquaCulture 4.0 into India. Started in 2020, the company has already touched lives of thousands of Indian farmers with its patented tech and is demonstrating its value proposition to all stakeholders in the ecosystem.

The startup operates across the value chain through: a) Fintech enabled e-commerce platform – that offers high quality inputs at best prices directly from manufacturers; b) unique ‘Hardware-as-a-Service’ model for farm automation – smart, reliable and easy-to-deploy IoT devices under the brand name ‘NextAqua’ - on subscription basis - for automated feeding and 24x7 farm monitoring; and c) ‘Harvest-as-a-Service’ market linkage platform - that facilitates harvests at the farm-gate with transparent pricing and assured spot payments to the smallholder farmers.

Pavan Kosaraju

AquaExchange has patents published for its power management tool “PowerMon” and its feed management tool “AquaBot.” PowerMon is the world’s first patented technology that empowers farmers with complete farm power monitoring and aeration control through the convenience of a mobile app. AquaBot, the world’s only moving auto-feeder that has been deployed at scale, allows farmers to efficiently feed their ponds while maintaining good feed conversion ratios (FCRs).

AquaExchange merged with the device manufacturer NextAqua, founded by Kareem and Kiran, earlier this year. Pavan and the core team comprising Hemasundar, Kareem and Kiran come with strong backgrounds in multinationals, building high impact teams in growth stage startups, consulting, industrial design, and manufacturing.

Pavan Kosaraju, Founder of AquaExchange, said, “At AquaExchange, the key focus is on adding value to the aquaculture farming process through the use of advanced technology. Our IoT devices and automatic feeders have been installed at scale and are helping farmers with higher reliability/efficiencies in terms of aeration and feed management, while at the same time providing RoIs within the first quarter of usage. We believe that future aquaculture farmers should be equipped with the right data at the right time to ensure higher crop successes and also increase farming productivity. This in turn will help the other industry players such as Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance Companies to work with farmers and, in the process, unlock industry-wide efficiencies.''

Dr Ramesh Byrapaneni, Managing Director of Endiya Partners, added, “We’re excited to back the brilliant team of AquaExchange in their vision to transform the aquaculture landscape in India and globally to benefit a large number of aqua farmers. With its differentiated proprietary technology for farm automation and power management, AquaExchange will not only help bring in efficiencies across the aquaculture value chain but also generate solid data driven insights to bring in access to formal credit, that has largely remained elusive for the sector”.

“As rising inflation and supply chain disruptions make it harder for low-income families to put food on the table, it’s crucial that farmers are supported with the tools they need to sustain and grow their businesses. AquaExchange’s innovative technologies are addressing several pain points for India’s fish and shrimp farmers — including purchasing supplies, automating processes, and selling products — to ensure that farmers are empowered to continue feeding their communities, ” commented Michael Schlein, President and CEO of Accion.

According to market reports the global shrimp and fish markets are estimated to grow to $400bn by 2027. This market is at the threshold of a massive change in terms of technology adoption for efficient farming. Companies like AquaExchange are at the forefront in terms of ushering in AquaCulture 4.0 which is needed to facilitate such productivity increases.

Edge AI Company AlphaICs Raises $8 Mn in Funding Led by Emerald Technology Ventures and Endiya Partners

Pradeep Vajram-CEO & Chairman, AlphaICs

AlphaICs, the leading edge AI technology company from Milpitas, CA and Bangalore, India, announced today that it has secured $8 million funding. The company designs and develops high-performance AI Chips for Edge Computing. It will use the funds to tape-out the Gluon AI chip, to develop the software stack and to build system solutions for its target markets.

The Series B round was led by Endiya Partners and Emerald Technology Ventures, with participation of existing Series A investors ReBright Partners and 3One4 Capital, along with Aaruha Technology Fund, IREON Ventures, Canal Ventures, JSR Corporation, CBC Co ltd and the Whiteboard Capital. Dr. Michal Natora, the Investment Director Industrial IT at Emerald, will join AlphaICs’ board of directors.

With the growth in popularity of Deep Neural Networks, there has been a huge demand for running such networks on edge devices in real-time. Omdia forecasts that global AI edge chipset revenue will grow from $7.7 Billion in 2019 to $51.9 Billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 37.5%.

AlphaICs’ Real AI Processor (RAPTM), based on a proprietary highly modular and scalable architecture, enables AI acceleration for low power edge applications, as well as high performance edge data centers. AlphaICs’ architecture provides best-in-class inference performance, and it is equally suited for edge learning. The rapidly developing field of Edge learning promotes privacy, enables automated labelling, and facilitates continuous learning of new scenarios. 

Prashant Trivedi-VP Business Ddevelopment & Co-Founder of AlphaICs

“We observed a big need in the industry for Machine Learning applications at the edge. AlphaICs’ technology offers significant performance advantages for edge inference as well as for edge learning solutions.” said Michal Natora, Investment Director at Emerald Technology Ventures, “The differentiated technology and the high calibre team led by Pradeep Vajram were two key criteria driving Emerald’s investment.

“Edge AI applications in Consumer markets like High-end Smartphones, Wearables as well as Enterprise Markets like Robots, Cameras, and Sensors will be pervasive in the next few years. AlphaICs RAP accelerates inferencing as well as learning tasks on-device, rather than in a remote data center delivering benefits like low latency, cost, data privacy, and security.” said Sateesh Andra, Managing Director with Endiya Partners. He added, “While NVidia, Google, and Startups like Graphcore are poised to dominate DataCenter AI, AlphaICs has the opportunity to be a market leader in enabling AI at the Edge.”

“AlphaICs innovative architecture will empower system integrators to create AI solutions, with a short time-to-market; while staying within the systems cost and thermal constraints.” said Pradeep Vajram, Chairman & CEO of AlphaICs, “This funding will help us bring our first inference co-processor to the market for vision applications with low latency requirements. We are also working with strategic partners to bring innovative solutions to the Industrial, Automotive, and Surveillance markets.”


About AlphaICs:

AlphaICs, founded in 2016, is a leading AI technology company that develops edge inference and edge learning technologies to enable AI at the edge. Its Next-generation AI architecture, called Real AI Processor (RAPTM), provides highest performance, low power, and minimal latency, enabling best-in-class edge AI inference processing. The RAPTM architecture also supports edge learning to reduce requirement of training data, and enables auto labelling as well as continuous learning at the edge. The company is led by a team of technology experts and successful serial entrepreneurs committed to putting forth the true potential of the AI at the edge. Learn more at https://www.alphaics.ai.

SaaS Management Start-up Zluri Secures USD 2M Funding From Endiya Partners and Kalaari Capital

Zluri, a start-up that helps US mid-sized companies manage their SaaS applications stack, announced a seed investment of US$ 2M from Endiya Partners and Kalaari Capital. The funding will help expand sales, marketing, and engineering functions and build integrations and no-code workflow automation for SaaS applications.

Founded by Sethu Meenakshisundaram, Ritish Reddy, and Chaithanya Yambari, Zluri was born out of challenges experienced first-hand by the founding team. Today, 3^rd party SaaS solutions used by corporates do not follow systems or processes to manage them, leading to hidden dollar leakages, sub-par utilization, and rampant software duplication. With SaaS spend per employee expected to increase in the coming years, the problem Zluri is trying to solve will compound exponentially. Zluri currently has ten employees and has onboarded some of the leading organizations as its customers to help them with SaaS application management.

"Given that we have reached the tipping point in the adoption of SaaS, managing, and securing SaaS applications centrally with a high degree of automation is a big focus area for IT teams in large enterprises as well as mid-size companies, globally. With solid domain knowledge and necessary skills, we believe Zluri will be quick off the blocks. We are excited to partner with Sethu, Ritish, and Chaithanya in Zluri's journey to be a dominant force in the SaaS Ops Management space," said Sateesh Andra, MD, Endiya Partners.

"The founders of Zluri come together with complementary skills and deep experience in SaaS businesses. With global expenditure on SaaS applications exceeding $100B, we believe SaaS Operations Management will be a very large opportunity. We are excited to partner with Zluri to build a global SaaS business from India," said Vani Kola, MD, Kalaari Capital. Notably, Zluri is Kalaari's first investment from its new fund.

Zluri's easy to deploy solution will help companies of all sizes manage their ever-growing subscription-based software stack, popularly referred to as tech stack or SaaS stack. Low entry barriers and accelerated workplace productivity are expediting the move from on-premises software to SaaS applications. Today, a 200-employee company uses upwards of 150 applications, and there are no efficient systems to manage those apps.

"Issues such as overspending, shadow IT, under-utilization, duplication, compliance, and security-related issues have all come about lately due to the SaaS explosion. Zluri's mission is to help companies to accelerate innovation through the software stack they purchase, but without the hassles that come along with it," said Sethu Meenakshisundaram, one of the co-founders. He further added, "When the world got powered by electricity, having a meter was considered essential. Similarly, as SaaS apps power up organizations, Zluri will become a necessity too."

Hyderabad based Solar Startup Cygni Energy Raises $6.4 Mn in Funding led by Endiya Partners

Hyderabad based Cygni Energy Private Limited; an innovative Solar-DC solutions startup announced that it has raised funds of $ 6.4 Million through a combination of Equity and Debt. The equity funding is led by Endiya Partners, a leading early-stage venture capital firm that invests in product startups and the debt by IndusInd Bank, a leading Private Bank in India. The funds will help the startup in expanding capacity, strengthening R&D capabilities and increasing market reach.

Founded in 2014, by Venkat Rajaraman, Cygni's offers an innovative technology which provides green solar energy and DC power at an affordable price. The startup designs, manufactures, and sells inverter-less solar power backup DC technology solutions which removes the requirement of AC to DC and DC to AC conversions which helps in reducing the cost of production of per unit watt power.

This technology was developed by Cygni in collaboration with IIT Madras. Cygni has brought electricity to over 20000 homes across India and is building first DC Microgrid city in Sasaram, Bihar.

[caption id="attachment_125682" align="alignleft" width="255"] Venkat Rajaraman, CEO, Cygni Energy[/caption]

Cygni manufactures one of the most efficient solar controllers and had raised an initial funding in 2014. It was the first company to be recognized under Startup India program. The company is also boosting its leadership team and has roped in Mr. Paramjit Singh as Chief Operating Officer, who was earlier serving as Circle Chief Technology Officer with Airtel. The startup has received a grant from Millennium Alliance (FICCI in partnership with USAID, TDB, and World Bank) for developing Solar-DC microgrid systems. The company posted annual revenues of $ 7.8 Million for the financial year 2018 and is looking at a buoyant growth of 300-400% in the next fiscal.

Cygni’s mission is to “Power a Billion Dreams” by venturing into new solar solutions based on Technology and Innovation. The company focuses on creating more efficient power and brighter future by providing green solar energy and DC power at a reasonable cost advantage. Today, Cygni has deployed its products in more than 20,000 homes changing the lives of over 100,000 people across India. It provides various Solar DC and microgrid solutions which are energy efficient and reliable offering for today’s power needs.

Related - Cygni Energy is First To Benefit From ‘Start-Up India’ Initiative

Speaking on the announcement, Venkat Rajaraman, CEO, Cygni Energy said, “This round of funding will help us strengthen our product offering& enhance customer experience. It will enable us to achieve our mission of building great products that will facilitate rural development and electrification in our country and other parts of the world. We are excited to welcome Endiya Partners as a new Investor and mentor. Their investment not only validates our belief in the technology but also gives us the push to accelerate and achieve our dreams.”

Commenting on the development, Sateesh Andra ofEndiya Partners said, “Renewable and clean energy is the better solution to handle the power demand in our country. We see Cygni take a unique position to revolutionize the way energy is stored and consumed by using technology to provide affordable clean energy to consumers. The company’s rapid growth demonstrates the strong demand for easy, affordable access to renewable energy in our country. We are pleased to lead the investment round with Cygni and partner with them on their growth journey.”

Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor at IITM said “IITM has worked closely with Cygni to develop the Inverterless technology. This product was built ground up with high efficiency and affordability in mind. We are confident that this product will play a pivotal role in eliminating energy poverty and provide an efficient solution for developing economies.”

About Endiya Partners, it is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in IP led product startups that are globally relevant. Endiya’s portfolio consists of disruptive and category-defining companies across the Technology, Healthcare, and Tech-enabled Consumer sectors. Leveraging deep domain expertise along with vast entrepreneurial and operating experience, the Endiya team plays a key role in co-creating scalable businesses while bridging a funding gap between Angel and Series A investments in the venture capital spectrum of India.

Top Featured Image - Facebook.com/Cygni