Hetrogenous Communications Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a Chennai-based telecommunications and Internet-of-Things (IoT) startup, has raised Rs 5 crore (around $780,000) in fresh funding from The Chennai Angels, Keiretsu Forum and a group of individual investors.
The firm will use the funds to fuel growth in remote asset management, industrial automation and IoT, it said in a statement.
“The investment will help us scale our remote infrastructure management solution in the telecom sector… It will also help us in expanding into other markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East,†said Anush Gopalan, chairman of Hetrogenous Communications.
“This investment marks TCA’s first major investment in the rapidly growing IoT vertical, in a company backed by an experienced team of professionals,†said Sriram Vaidyanathan, the lead investor from The Chennai Angels in the latest round.
Hetrogenous Communications offers machine-to-machine (M2M) products and solutions for the Indian market. Its platform captures data from varied sources, tethers them with context and returns them with control sequencing to provide the IoT experience that helps clients solve problems.
Hetrogenous Inc was incorporated in Los Angeles in 2006. While Hetrogenous merged itself with UK-based InfoSpectrum in October 2011, Hetrogenous Communications, which housed its Indian operations, continued as a standalone entity.
Gopalan, who founded Hetrogenous Communications, was previously vice president of business development at Qualphone, which was later acquired by Qualcomm. Prior to joining Qualphone, he co-founded Sonim Technologies.
The Chennai Angels has been active in the funding space lately.
In February this year, Northerly Automotive Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates automobile services platform GoBumpr, raised $300,000 (Rs 2 crore) in a round led by The Chennai Angels.
In December 2016, The Chennai Angels invested in The Postbox, a Chennai-based art and lifestyle e-commerce firm. In the same month, the angel network backed Chennai-based E-Vegetailing Pvt. Ltd, which sells fresh vegetables sourced directly from farmers.
Keiretsu Forum's Chennai chapter, which started operations in February 2015, has made over 37 investments to date across sectors, with a focus on deep-tech firms.
In October last year, VCCircle reported that Keiretsu Forum, which has around 2,500 members and 46 chapters globally, launched its third chapter in India in Mumbai, and charted out a plan to have at least a dozen chapters and 600 angel investors on its platform within five years.
