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Neeraj Bhargava's Zodius Capital, a specialised operator-investor company, as lead investors have invested $3 million (around Rs 18 crore) in Singapore-based big data and analytics company Antuit. This is Zodius' sixth investment since it was set up in 2011.
Part of the investment has been used by Antuit, founded by Arijit Sengupta, to acquire a US-based analytics firm Marketwell in a part cash and stock deal. With this acquisition Antuit gets a presence in the US as well as access to 10 clients, of which three are fortune 500 companies.
"Data analytics todays looks like the BPO industry a decade back. The industry still has not clear defined leaders and Antuit looks ready to grow fast in this segment. The company has been in existance only for a few months and has already done an acquistion," said Bhargava senior managing director & CEO, Zodius Advisors. Bhargava former co-founder and CEO of NYSE- listed company WNS and Partner at McKinsey & Company, will join Antuit as chairman.
Antuit like Zodius's another portfolio firm FMG has opted to jump-start its operations through an inorganic route. "We wanted to hit the ground running. We started in Bangalore and Singpore and were looking to have a presence in the US. Marketwell is a boutique firm and had good clients," said Sengupta. Antuit started its business in early 2013 and its early client focus was on supply chain analytics in the Asia Pacific region.
Other than acquisitions, which Sengupta said will continue to be a focus for the company to grow and attain scale faster, Antuit will use the funds for growing organic pipeline, and invest in products and capabilities. For Sengupta the focus area will be Asia-Pacific and the US and will offer services in the supplu chain an sales and marketing function. "Our long-terms aim is to be a leading player in this segment. And in the next four to five years we aim to be a $100 million firm. Inorganic strategy will be key for this target," added Sengupta.
Antuit will initially target customers in two key industries – CPG & Retail including E-commerce and Transportation & Logistics, with plans to build out new industry practices in future years through strategic client relationships and acquisitions. Besides Sengupta, Navin Sharma, founder Marketwell and Yogi Shankar senor executive at Marketwell, other key executives in Antuit include Marc Dragon (formerly IBM and Deloitte) and Amitabh Bose (formerly Pepsi, P&G and WNS). A distinctive part of Antuit’ s value proposition will be combining traditional business analytics with new consumer insights from social media and digital networks to enable business executives to accelerate and enhance the incisiveness of their decision-making.
