Growth-stage investor A91 Partners, floated by former Sequoia Capital executives VT Bharadwaj, Gautam Mago and Abhay Pandey, has struck its maiden deal in IT services with an investment in Chennai-based KaarTech.
A backer of companies like Healthkart, Blue Tokai, Sugar Cosmetics, Ninety One, Giva, Paper Boat, Inshorts and Atomberg, A91 has invested $30 million (around Rs 240 crore) in the digital transformation consulting firm.
The latest fundraise has increased KaarTech’s valuation to Rs 550 crore (around $69 million), two people with knowledge of the deal told VCCircle.
Veda Corporate Advisors (Veda) acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the company and its promoters.
Gautam Mago and Kaushik Anand, executives at A91 Partners, will join the KaarTech board, the company said in a statement.
Founded by Maran Nagarajan, Ratnakumar N, Selvakumaran M and George Guardian in 2006, KaarTech specialises in IP & digital services in the SAP ecosystem with expertise in manufacturing, professional services automation, process manufacturing and consumer packaged goods. With a team of over 2,000 employees, the company claims to have doubled its revenue in the last two years.
“The partnership with A91 will take KaarTech towards an expansion and our aspiration of going public, despite our bootstrapped origins,” said Nagarajan.
“Over the last decade, KaarTech’s team had established themselves as one of the leading partners for digital transformation and SAP consulting services. We will help them in expanding their geographic presence in the US and Europe and in their journey towards becoming a publicly listed company,” said an A91 Partners spokesperson.
In May, VCCircle reported that A91 Partners is in discussions to pick up a minority stake in gadget and wearables brand Noise.
The venture capital firm mainly invests in four sectors—financial services, consumer, healthcare and software.
People close to the matter also said that A91 Partners is among a few potential investors who are evaluating investment in Noise.
