Energy management solutions provider Ecolibrium Energy Pvt. Ltd has raised $2.6 million (Rs 18 crore) led by early-stage investor and incubation fund Infuse Ventures, real estate consultancy JLL and an angel investor.
The Ahmedabad-based company will use the funds to deepen customer engagement and expand to international markets, it said in a statement on Tuesday. It will also increase its focus on deep machine learning algorithms for electrical equipment, it added.
JLL invested in the company through its investment platform focused on real estate technology firms, JLL Technology Ventures. The statement didn’t disclose the name of the angel investor.
In December last year, VCCircle had reported that the company raised funds from energy-focussed investor Infuse Ventures.
Ecolibrium, which was founded in 2008, offers an energy analytics Internet of things (IoT) platform called SmartSens. The platform enables commercial and industrial users to take operational decisions for optimizing productivity and asset uptime through predictive insights, saving energy and asset maintenance spends.
“With the global IoT market estimated to be at $110 billion, and creating an impact of around $14.2 trillion, energy and manufacturing are going to be major drivers in this industry... Through our patented algorithms we will help businesses optimize their cost of operations and capital deployment for electrical assets,†said Chintan Soni, CEO at Ecolibrium Energy.
As per its website, the firm has 500 customers including Coca-Cola, Intas Pharma, Fiat and Delhi Metro Rail Corp. It has also partnered with multinational giants like Vodafone and SAP to develop energy analytics and IoT products.
Ecolibrium Energy had first raised $1.6 million from Infuse Ventures and International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2013.
“Ecolibrium is one of our early investments and we are excited to continue supporting the company... With the increasing adoption of IoT and analytics for energy management, Ecolibrium is well positioned to strengthen its leadership position,†said Vibhor Dhanuka, vice president for investments at Infuse Ventures.
Infuse Ventures has been investing actively in the clean-tech sector. Its portfolio includes renewable energy services startup REConnect, distributed solar developer Fourth Partner Energy, geothermal cooling solutions provider GIBSS and industrial green chemicals company Proklean.
Besides Ecolibrium, a lot of IoT firms have come up in India over the past few years to tap into a nascent but growing market. The central government’s department of electronics and information technology is also preparing a policy for the IoT industry. Its draft policy aims to create a $15 billion IoT sector in India by 2020.
The IoT market in India is estimated to grow up to $15 billion by 2020 from $5.6 billion in 2016, driven by adoption across sectors like manufacturing, automotive, transportation and logistics, according to a report by Nasscom and Deloitte.