Covacsis, a three year old start-up from at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B), has secured venture capital funding from three investors-- Blume Ventures, India Venture Partners and a European fund which the start-up declined to name.
The funding, to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore will be used to expand the company's business in India and also internationally.
Covacsis helps manufacturing companies measure floor economics in real time. Tarun Mishra, founder and promoter Covacsis said, "This bridge financing will help us expand our business. It will also give wings to our international plans."
Mishra adds that with manufacturing changing and companies looking at new ways of managing it, Covacsis' technology helps companies convert operational data into real time financial numbers.
Blume Ventures provides seed funding in the range of $50K - $250K to early-stage tech-focused/tech-enabled ventures. “At Blume, we fundamentally believe that input cost efficiencies whether it translates to energy or productivity , is the key for next 10 years in global markets. Covacsis has got everything to become a leader in this space of transforming microeconomics of production floor," said Karthik Reddy- Founder of Blume.
According to IVP Chief Navneet Gosal, through its initial set of customers, Covacsis has generated traction via a proven ROI on the use of its technology.
"Covacsis has developed unique and interesting technology in the shop floor intelligence space. We believe the capital investment in Covacsis can help the business scale across manufacturing and production industries in India.”
Covacsis which serves companies like--- Sun Pharma, Ipca Labs, Cipla, Godrej Industries, Tata Chemicals, Welspun, Raymond Limited and Ruby Mills--- in spaces like pharma, chemical and textile, plans to cater expand its bouquet of services to companies in the automobile, steel, oil and gas and FMCG segment too.
“Covacsis' solution is only solution which makes the operator and CEO talk in the financial language,” said Pranay Godha, ED, Ipca Labs. After heading the financial product business of a Canadian company for four years, Tarun Mishra called it quits in 2003 to give shape to his entrepreneurial dreams. Mishra, 38, started Covacsis with a capital of Rs 20,00,000. Covacsis built a solution called ‘Real Time Production Measurement & diagnostics (RTPM) which "helps organisations avoid inevitable changes on the production floor".
While shop-floor managers may miss the intermittent breakdowns and millions of reprocessing and utilities cost fluctuations, etc, which affects the product quality and plant efficiency on the floor, Covacsis’ RTPD helps management understand the impact of each and every incident on the top-line and bottom-line and respond to such incidents in the shortest possible time.
Mishra’s company has been incubating at IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) for the past three years. SINE provides facilities to entrepreneurs at a subsidised rate. IIT-B takes a minority stake of 4-5 per cent in each of the firm that incubates on its campus. Once the company gets funding IIT-B liquidates part of its holding.
Mishra now plans to buyback IIT-B's equity in his company. Founders have huge belief in the proposition Covacsis offers to the market and expect 10 times valuation in two-three years.
With a team of 33 executives, Covacsis aspires to become 100 Crore company in valuation in less than 36 months time. Covacsis has aggressive non- linear growh strategy says Tarun.
The company next year plans to go in for second round of funding to the tune of $5.5-6 million.
