 "Pacific Rim nations agree to historic trade agreement")
Zenatix Solutions, an Internet of Things-driven energy data analytics company, has raised an undisclosed amount in follow-on funding from Blume Ventures, in a pre-Series-A round.
The company had previously raised $200,000 (Rs 1.3 crore) from a group of angel investors led by Rahul Khanna (Trifecta Capital), Rajan Anandan (Google) and Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. The firm was founded in December 2013 by alumni of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Delhi, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Ahmedabad and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), respectively Rahul Bhalla, Vishal Bansal and Amarjeet Singh. It provides a cloud-based energy analytics product that helps large consumers of electricity reduce their spending, using intelligence from the energy data, correlated with other factors such as temperature, humidity and occupancy. Currently, it is focused on commercial customers including large office spaces, retail chains, banks, hospitals, hotels and educational institutions. It claims at least 45 paying customers, including Google, Tata Teleservices, NIIT, Glaxo SmithKline, Xerox, Mother Dairy and Starbucks.
“We have a SaaS-based engagement model — the customer doesn't pay upfront for the hardware or software. It is a fixed monthly or annual fee and the energy savings delivered by our analytics solution far outweigh our fee. Typically, the customers become cash flow-positive by a significant amount from the second month,” said Rahul Bhalla, co-founder and chief executive.
The current customer base is largely centred in the National Capital Region, with some in Bengaluru. It plans to expand in Bengaluru and Mumbai over the next few months. The capital will be further used for hiring across all its functions---technology, product and sales.
Karthik Reddy, co-founder and managing partner at Blume Ventures, said: “In Zenatix, we saw a great combination of our beliefs, in a well-rounded, passionate and determined team, and the problem they've chosen to solve. Energy efficiency and savings is as important and as large a frontier to tackle as renewable energy. We have faith that Team Zenatix will keep pushing the innovation envelope on this front and emerge as a key player in what the world is today discussing feverishly in Paris at the climate summit.”
Added Bhalla: “We are now at an inflection point in our journey. With a healthy customer base, we have already demonstrated our value proposition and the product-market fit. The additional money can now be used to expand the customer base and deliver additional value from the product in an automated fashion. We are aiming to achieve an ARR (annualised recurring revenue) of $1 million over the next nine to 12 months.”
