Ally, a business execution management software startup, on Tuesday said it has raised $8 million (Rs 57 crore) in its Series A round of funding led by venture capital firm Accel.
Vulcan Capital, the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and US-based seed stage venture capital firm Founders Co-op also participated in the funding round, Ally said in a statement.
VCCircle first reported last week that Accel is investing in Ally.
Lee Fixel, who left Tiger Global after more than a decade earlier this year, also contributed to the funding round, it added.
Vetri Vellore, founder and chief executive officer at Ally, said that the company will use the funds for innovation and enhance business operations.
Ally, which is operated by VTV Inc, was founded in 2018 by Vetri Vellore. The company says its software helps businesses of all sizes to easily adopt objectives and key results (OKRs). The OKRs is an operating model for running effective businesses popularized by Google and other industry leaders. Ally's software has been adopted by hundreds of companies like Remitly, Slack, T-Mobile and UrbanClap in more than 70 countries. The company is headquartered in Seattle and has offices in India.
Earlier in January this year, it had raised $3 million in its seed round of funding. Vellore had previously worked with Microsoft for over a decade.
Accel
The investment firm is one of the most active VC investors in Indian startups. It also occasionally invests in US startups.
“Ally fits into our objective of supporting innovative products that address core business challenges in a growing, global market," said Abhinav Chaturvedi, Partner at Accel. “We see more and more businesses focusing on increasing productivity by driving alignment, transparency, and visibility across the organization and Ally helps achieve that,” he added.
The firm is currently investing in India out of its fifth India-dedicated fund that had raised $450 million in November 2016.
Accel is an early backer of leading consumer internet companies such as Flipkart, BookMyShow, Myntra and BlueStone. It has also backed several SaaS-based startups such as VComply Inc, business software firm Freshworks and facilities management software maker Facilio.
In July, it backed a real estate and construction material marketplace and Megashots Internet Pvt. Ltd, a startup floated by the founders of a now-defunct company which was backed by the venture capital firm.
In June, VCCircle reported that Accel had bet on data analytics firm Elixa and ed-tech startup Splash Math.
Earlier this year, Accel expanded its local partnership team by elevating three long-serving executives.
