WEGoT Utility Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates internet-of-things (IoT)-based water management solutions startup, has raised $2 million (approximately Rs 14.29 crore at current exchange rates) in a seed funding round.
Chennai-based WEGoT raised the money from a clutch of investors including Kumar Vembu’s GoFrugal, iThought’s Shyam Sekhar, Brigade Enterprises, Grotech Landscapes director Vibhu Natarajan, Entrust’s Rajagopal S and Joydeep Ponugoti from Manbhum Constructions, among others, The Hindu Business Line reported.
The company will use the funds to strengthen its product offering and enhance its technological infrastructure apart from expanding its sales footprint across the country, the report said.
Abilash Haridass, co-founder and chief of growth and strategy at WEGoT, said the firm’s primary focus will be on geographical expansion. It has already started projects in Pune, Ahmedabad, the National Capital Region and Kolkata, he added.
VCCircle has reached out to WEGoT on the reported investment and will update the article accordingly.
WEGoT was founded in 2015 by Abilash Haridass, Vijay Krishna, Mohamed Mohideen and Sundeep Donthamshetty. It offers a sensor-based IoT device and platform that helps reduce demand for water through methods such as real-time flow tracking. The company currently has offices in Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
Haridass said the company has managed to achieve up to a 50% reduction for water demand in some residential buildings, and is also planning to launch a water management solution for individual homes and smaller retail units.
Deals in the IoT segment
The larger IoT segment has attracted interest from investors in recent months, as more organisations across sectors look to automate their processes and increase productivity.
In June, SwitchOn, an industrial IoT (IIoT) platform secured $1 million (around Rs 6.98 crore then) in a seed funding round led by pi Ventures, a venture capital firm which focuses on deep-technology investments. Axilor Ventures, the early-stage investment firm and accelerator led by Infosys founders Kris Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal, and angel investors from The Chennai Angels also participated in the round.
In the same month, IIoT startup Syook raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Inflection Point Ventures, an investment initiative floated by a group of chief financial officers and finance professionals from India’s startup ecosystem.
In April, Altizon Systems Pvt. Ltd, which operates a platform to develop solutions based on IIoT, raised $7 million (around Rs 49 crore) in its Series A round of funding.