SaaS Firm for Solar Infra SenseHawk Raises $5.1 Mn in Funding led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI)

• Funds raised to Enhance Efficiency in the Development, Construction and Operation of Solar Power Plants.
• Alpha Wave Incubationand SAIF Partners to Lead its Second Institutional Round.
• Funding to be Used for Product Development and Expanding SenseHawk Teams in North America, Middle East and North Africa .

SenseHawk, a SaaS company that helps customers develop, build and operate solar and other infrastructure sites through superior insights, announced today that it has raised $5.1 million in Series A1 funding. The investment round was led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), a $300m venture fund managed by Falcon Edge Capital, a leading global alternative asset manager, and backed by ADQ, one of the largest regional holding companies based in Abu Dhabi. Existing investor SAIF Partners also participated with a follow-on investment.

SenseHawk’s cloud-based platform and application modules solve several challenges in the development, construction and operation of solar sites. Its application modules enable solar companies to reduce costs, enhance workforce productivity and improve solar site performance leveraging sophisticated AI and machine learning models.

The SenseHawk platform is used by over 80 customers to analyze over 28 GW of solar assets in 15 countries, and the company is focused on expanding its offerings and customer base as the world increasingly moves to renewable energy. Global installed solar capacity is expected to increase from the current installed base of 600GW to 3000 GW worldwide in 2030. Moreover, SenseHawk is already expanding its market by serving customers in road infrastructure, power transmission and construction industries, and deepening its suite of offerings beyond solar.

The application modules on the SenseHawk platform support site and terrain management, construction monitoring, operations, thermography, work management and file organization. A mobile app extends the power of the platform and brings data to field techs so they have all the information they need at their fingertips. The mobile app also supports onsite navigation, enabling users to easily navigate to allocated tasks on sites that can be 1000s of acres in size.

Be it a developer, EPC, O&M contractor, asset owner, independent engineer or anyone else that works on a solar project, collaboration is easy using the SenseHawk platform and application modules.

As part of this investment from AWI, SenseHawk will expand its presence to Abu Dhabi and use the Emirate as a global base for international expansion while also targeting the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and other global markets. SenseHawk will also build a world-class team of data scientists, product managers and engineers located in Abu Dhabi.

“The investment through Alpha Wave Incubation provides strategic access to the MENA market in addition to powering the ongoing development of our software platform. The follow-on investment by SAIF Partners is a validation of our direction and reaffirms their commitment to be a long-term partner to the startups they invest in,” said Swarup Mavanoor, CEO and co-founder of SenseHawk. “Solar construction is on a fast trajectory and this new funding enables us to continue to support designers, builders and operators of this critical form of renewable energy."

“SenseHawk has sophisticated technology, strong global traction and a leadership team with deep experience in the solar industry. We are excited to back an industry-leading AI-first SaaS company which brings about step-function increases in performance, productivity and cost efficiencies for their customers. Its platform offers immense application to the UAE and the GCC’s already large and burgeoning renewable energy sector,”

said Anirudh Singh, managing director at Alpha Wave Incubation.

“Over the last two years, we have seen SenseHawk build a best-in-class platform to serve the entire solar lifecycle,” said Mayank Khanduja, managing director, SAIF Partners. “Their marquee global customers are a testament to the power of the platform. We are excited to reaffirm our commitment to SenseHawk in this round."

“The SenseHawk platform uses a microservices architecture that enables us to easily build and integrate tools that can serve both technical and business processes in the solar industry,” said Saideep Talari, CTO of SenseHawk. “Our goal is to build a single solution to fill all the software needs of our solar industry customers."

About SenseHawk

SenseHawk, co-founded in 2018 by SwarupMavanoor and Rahul Sankhe, is a leader in AI-powered software for the solar site lifecycle. The company offers a powerful cloud-based platform and a completely integrated set of applications that support everything from solar plant design and construction to operation and maintenance. SenseHawk software has delivered data analytics for more than 28 GWs of solar assets across 15 countries worldwide. The company is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area and has offices in India. For more information, please go to www.sensehawk.com.

About Alpha Wave Incubation

Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) is a $300m venture fund managed by Falcon Edge Capital and backed by ADQ. AWI has a dedicated team across London, Bangalore and Abu Dhabi. The fund invests in early stage tech-enabled, disruptive start-ups in India and Southeast Asia. In addition to providing outstanding founders with early-stage capital, AWI offers access to an unrivaled set of support mechanisms for business-building, while also helping companies expand globally and open up new markets in the GCC/MENA region and beyond. ADQ is one of the region’s largest holding companies with a broad portfolio of major enterprises spanning key sectors of Abu Dhabi’s diversified economy.

AI-led Supply Chain optimization Firm Locus Raises $22 Mn Falcon Edge and Tiger Global

Locus, a global AI backed supply chain optimization company has secured $22 Million in (Series B) funding by Falcon Edge Capital & Tiger Global Management. Previous investors Exfinity Venture Partners and Blume Ventures also took part in this round.

After demonstrating successful customer rollouts across sectors in India, the company began expanding to North America and Southeast Asia in 2018. The new round of funding will help Locus penetrate deeper into the new markets by enhancing the product & solutions for each geography and also in expanding local teams.

Locus automates human decisions required to transport a package or a person, between any two points on earth, delivering gains along the axes of efficiency, consistency, and transparency in operations. The company's premier logistics optimization solutions include route optimization, real-time tracking of orders, insights and analytics, dynamic sales journey plans, and automated shipment sorting. Locus is focussed on solving complex real-world logistics problems like increasing First Attempt Delivery Rate (FADR) for e-commerce companies, sales transformation for global CPG companies, and suggesting optimal fleet mix for 3PL companies.

“Locus provides autonomous supply chain optimization thus minimizing the dependency on human intelligence, built by an incredible team of PhDs & Engineers. Product applications include clubbing of forward and reverse logistics in a single route plan, schedule & on-demand dispatch planning, and automatic escalation management. Locus is on an unprecedented path to automate every possible decision in the supply chain. The funding will act as a boost to our global expansion efforts as we amplify our team size specifically in North America and continue to build our IP,” said Locus CEO, Nishith Rastogi.

“We believe the trillion dollar global logistics market is ripe for disruption via technological change, particularly AI and machine learning driven solutions. We are excited to lead a Series B round in Locus, a company that deploys AI/ML/deep tech to drive route optimization outcomes in global logistics markets. With prolific anchor customers such as Blue Dart, the team has demonstrated the ability to build and deliver cutting edge technology and algorithmic driven outcomes that provide attributable ROI to the enterprise at scale. We are excited to help Locus expand its breadth and depth of product and sales reach, moving from route optimization to a full-stack SaaS offering to the enterprise around its logistics needs.” said Navroz D. Udwadia, Co-Founder, Falcon Edge Capital.

Locus has established itself as an innovative leader in AI backed logistics solutions by tackling the industry’s core supply chain challenges and operational complexities. One of the largest e-grocery players in India is using Locus to achieve 99.5% SLA adherence for its 10Mn+ customers. Locus currently serves 40+ clients globally saving logistics cost at scale, increasing productivity and profitability for enterprises across multiple segments, owning a peak of over 1 million orders processed in a day. Locus has offices in India, US and Indonesia and dedicated local teams for these regions.

Locus is an advanced supply chain optimization company that uses proprietary algorithms and deep learning to provide route optimization, real-time tracking, insights and analytics, dynamic sales journey plans, efficient warehouse management and vehicle allocation & utilization. Locus identifies new gaps in the logistics sector and fills them with AI-based decision-making solutions helping enterprises reduce logistics cost, enable on-time deliveries and provide a delightful end user experience. Founded by Nishith Rastogi and Geet Garg, the company comprises of engineers and data scientists from Carnegie Mellon University and Indian Institute of Technology. The company now has operations in the US, Indonesia, Singapore, India, and Australia.

[Top Featured Image - (L-R)Nishith Rastogi, CEO & Co-founder & Geet Garg, CTO & Co-founder at Locus]

Intelligent Retail Platform Vue.ai Raises $17 Mn from Falcon Edge, Sequoia India and Global Brain

Mad Street Den, the maker of Vue.ai, a platform for intelligent retail automation, today announced it has raised a $17 million Series B led by Falcon Edge Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital India and Global Brain, a GP of KDDI Innovation Fund.

The new round brings the company’s total capital raised to $27.5 million. After experiencing a fourfold annual revenue increase, the funds will be used to grow the team, deliver on the product roadmap and scale the company’s existing customer base that already includes leading retailers from across the globe like Macy’s, Mercadolibre and Tata.

Last September, the AI startup had received undisclosed amount in strategic investment from KIDDI Corporation of Tokyo, Japan. The funds have been routed through KIDDI’s investment arm, KDDI Open Innovation Fund 2, managed by Global Brain.

Retailers have entered an era where consumers expect a seamless brand experience thanks to behemoths like Amazon and Alibaba who are using AI to personalize products and services for shoppers. The battle to stay competitive comes at a tremendous cost to retailers who are projected to spend more than $7B billion on AI over the next 3 years. By offering a one-stop shop across the value chain, Vue.ai is the first AI solution to automate critical functions across departments heavily dependent on human intuition, unifying data about products, people and processes.

Vue.ai combines seven different products to offer retailers a unified system used as a ‘neural network’ for decision-making. Using a centralized data brain, the platform digitally maps a retail product’s DNA, then translates product information into language that teams can easily understand. With better accuracy and insights, retailers can easily decode the qualities of their merchandise, make intelligent updates on the fly, and deliver unique experiences along every step of the customer journey.

“The future of retail is entertainment. The experience economy we see today is the start of that era,” said Ashwini Asokan, CEO and Founder of Vue.ai. “Brands are shifting to designing worlds that consumers want to be a part of and that has to integrate with the new ways people shop. Vue is the electricity that powers all these complicated and important retail functions so retailers can focus on the business of entertaining you"

"The Vue.ai team is on a mission to put AI and intelligent automation in the hands of teams across the globe in ways that improve productivity and growth multi-fold,” said Anandamoy Roychowdhary, CTO and Director of Sequoia Capital India. “We’ve seen incredible growth in how they’ve brought this value across multiple functions in the retail industry in just two years since we started this journey with them. Sequoia India is excited to partner with Falcon Edge in this round, enabling Ashwini and Anand to scale Vue.ai globally.”

California-headquartered firm which has an office in Chennai, Vue.ai was launched by husband-wife duo - Ashwini Asokan and Anand Chandrasekaran in 2016 as the first AI brand from its parent company Mad Street Den. The team is comprised of neuroscientists and AI experts from IBM, Intel and DARPA. The company serves major retailers across the US, UK, India, Middle East and Latin America.

The company has recently announced Human Model Generator, an AI that can generate garment-to-model images & predict how the garment fits.

Fintech Startup OfBusiness Raises $29 Mn in Funding Led By Creation Investment, Falcon Edge

Gurgaon-based OfBusiness, a startup that finances small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has raised Rs 200 crore (~ US$29.18 million) in series-C funding round led by US-based Creation Investments and Falcon Edge. Existing investors Matrix Partners and Zodius Capital also participated in the round.

The freshly raised funds will help the startup to shore up debt to boost its loan book, says OfBusiness co-founder and CEO Asish Mohapatra, to a daily news portal.

The startup had earlier raised Rs25 crors in debt lines from Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Capital, RBL Bank and Northern Arc, in October last year. Prior to which, it has raised Rs 75 Cr in Series B investment round led by Zodius Technology Opportunities Fund, in December 2016.

In total, Ofbusiness has racked up Rs 500 crore in equity and debt funding to date.

Founded in 2015 by IIT & FMS-Delhi graduates -- Asish Mohapatra, Bhuvan Gupta, Chandranshu Sinha, Nitin Jain, Ruchi Kalra, Ruchi Kalra, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Vasant Sridhar, OfBusiness is a new age technology-driven fintech start up that serves as a single-window for SMEs in the manufacturing and infrastructure space to provide unsecured credit lines as an alternate to financing. SMEs can use this limit for cost-effective procurement of raw material (TMT bars, polymers, kraft paper, cement and building materials) which the platform aggregates, passing the aggregation benefits to the SMEs.

OfBusiness, which got NBFC status in 2016, had already turned profitable at the profit-after-tax level since December last year. Moreover, the startup has registered Rs 100 crore of monthly disbursals across 2,500 customers running businesses in sectors like metals, plastics and paper, among others.

The startup assists its customers with raw material fulfillment and a new opportunities platform -- BidAssist. It underwrites loans by evaluating financial data of the SME, and also by checking the proprietary data contributed by the SME community of buyers and sellers.

Creation has also invested in other lending companies like Capital Float and Equitas Holding. Vikram Vaidyanathan, MD at Matrix India, said, “OfBusiness captures the SME’s need for repetitive purchase finance with a unique business model. Their proprietary data advantage is reflected in the increasing efficacy of underwriting and support from marquee banking partners.

Recently, an another SME-focussed lending startup, Kinara Capita, has raised Rs 32 crore in non-convertible debentures from Zurich, Switzerland-based responsAbility Investments.

Source - Times of India

[Top Image - Ofbusiness Team via Facebook]

Fintech Startup OfBusiness Raises $29 Mn in Funding Led By Creation Investment, Falcon Edge

Gurgaon-based OfBusiness, a startup that finances small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has raised Rs 200 crore (~ US$29.18 million) in series-C funding round led by US-based Creation Investments and Falcon Edge. Existing investors Matrix Partners and Zodius Capital also participated in the round.

The freshly raised funds will help the startup to shore up debt to boost its loan book, says OfBusiness co-founder and CEO Asish Mohapatra, to a daily news portal.

The startup had earlier raised Rs25 crors in debt lines from Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Capital, RBL Bank and Northern Arc, in October last year. Prior to which, it has raised Rs 75 Cr in Series B investment round led by Zodius Technology Opportunities Fund, in December 2016.

In total, Ofbusiness has racked up Rs 500 crore in equity and debt funding to date.

Founded in 2015 by IIT & FMS-Delhi graduates -- Asish Mohapatra, Bhuvan Gupta, Chandranshu Sinha, Nitin Jain, Ruchi Kalra, Ruchi Kalra, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Vasant Sridhar, OfBusiness is a new age technology-driven fintech start up that serves as a single-window for SMEs in the manufacturing and infrastructure space to provide unsecured credit lines as an alternate to financing. SMEs can use this limit for cost-effective procurement of raw material (TMT bars, polymers, kraft paper, cement and building materials) which the platform aggregates, passing the aggregation benefits to the SMEs.

OfBusiness, which got NBFC status in 2016, had already turned profitable at the profit-after-tax level since December last year. Moreover, the startup has registered Rs 100 crore of monthly disbursals across 2,500 customers running businesses in sectors like metals, plastics and paper, among others.

The startup assists its customers with raw material fulfillment and a new opportunities platform -- BidAssist. It underwrites loans by evaluating financial data of the SME, and also by checking the proprietary data contributed by the SME community of buyers and sellers.

Creation has also invested in other lending companies like Capital Float and Equitas Holding. Vikram Vaidyanathan, MD at Matrix India, said, “OfBusiness captures the SME’s need for repetitive purchase finance with a unique business model. Their proprietary data advantage is reflected in the increasing efficacy of underwriting and support from marquee banking partners.

Recently, an another SME-focussed lending startup, Kinara Capita, has raised Rs 32 crore in non-convertible debentures from Zurich, Switzerland-based responsAbility Investments.

Source - Times of India

[Top Image - Ofbusiness Team via Facebook]

NewsHunt Raises Rs 120 crore In Series C Funding Led By Falcon Edge Capital

Newshunt, India's local language mobile news aggregation service has announced its Series C funding of INR 120 crore (US$19.4 million) led by New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital and this brings the NewsHunt's total funding raised to date to US$40.4M. The funding will be used to build a stronger local language platform.

Existing investors including Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, and Omidyar Network also participated in this round. In September 2014, Newshunt had raised its Series B round of funding led by Sequoia Capital.

Developed by Bangalore-based Eterno Infotech Private Limited, NewsHunt aggregates news stories from a wide range of national, international, and regional sources - more than 100 publications. It serves more than 25,000 articles a day (1.7 billion pages a month). The app works on all platforms and devices including J2ME, Symbian, Blackberry, Android & iOS and has been downloaded more than 75 million times.

After this funding the company's valuation has reached between Rs 1,700 to 1,800 crore.

Users pay for downloads through Newshunt’s proprietary payment platform iPayy that is now also being used by third party developers for micro-transactions through carrier billing.

"The next 500 million mobile Internet users that will emerge in India will largely be local language first – they will create and consume content and services in local languages. Our vision is to be a dominant part of their first Internet experience and serve these users with world-class products starting with Newshunt, eBooks, iPayy and many more to come." said said Virendra Gupta, founder and CEO of NewsHunt.