Smart city player Quantela raises $40 mn growth capital from Digital Alpha

Bags the first outcome based project from Kerala government in India

Quantela Inc, provider of IoT-enabled Smart Cities and urban infrastructure digitisation, has closed approximately $40 million in growth capital for new Outcomes-as-a-Service (OasS) projects and acquisitions from Digital Alpha, a leading digital infrastructure investment firm.

The funding is aimed at helping Quantela grow inorganically through acquisitions, as well as help city governments finance ‘Outcomes-driven’ infrastructure digitization projects globally.

"The growth capital from Digital Alpha is a validation of the market opportunities that exist for us”, said Sridhar Gadhi, Founder and Executive Chairman, Quantela Inc. “While Quantela has been growing exponentially since inception, the funding will enable us to expand our global presence faster through a combination of acquisitions and new OaaS projects, creating greater impact for societies."

The current fund raise follows a Series A round of funding of $10 million in 2018.

Quantela and Digital Alpha have pioneered an Outcomes-as-a-Service (“OaaS”) approach to Smart Cities and urban infrastructure, leveraging customer outcomes such as revenue generation and expense savings to finance the capital investment for its solutions. The OaaS approach enables Quantela to share responsibility with customers for achieving their social, economic, and environmental sustainability goals, delivering greater value in the form of tangible outcomes that generate revenues or create new efficiencies.

It has secured a $20 millon Kerala road safety project, the first OasS project in India.  Quantela's latest OaaS deployment is in the Indian state of Kerala, will be the first of its kind in India which enables the state to reduce road fatalities by improving traffic rules enforcement.

Beyond technology, Quantela enables communities to digitize their infrastructure despite budgetary restrictions by financing the initial investment and engendering a partnership between technology providers and clients. Quantela recoups the original investment based on actual outcomes of cost savings from deployment of technologies such as smart lighting or smart waste management as well as incremental revenues earned from user charges such as parking, advertising revenue, traffic violation tickets, or anonymized aggregated data monetization. This integrated approach focuses on tangible outcomes and long-term commitment to achieve customers’ true objectives. The approach ensures that all parties are driven to meet and exceed project goals, creating a win-win for all involved.

The OaaS model has been successfully implemented in the city of Erie, PA (USA), where city leaders leveraged an initial investment from Quantela's investment partner Digital Alpha to secure a matching grant that doubled the budget for the project to set up free public Wi-Fi across 8 Federal Opportunity Zones. Erie will provide free public Wi-Fi to its citizens while implementing enhanced law enforcement surveillance, smart traffic control, smart parking, and energy-efficient street lighting.