KaHa Pte Ltd, a wearable technology startup that counts watch and jewellery company Titan Co. Ltd as a minority investor, has raised $6.2 million (Rs 43 crore) in its Series B funding round.
The Singapore-headquartered company, which also has an office in Bengaluru, plans to use the money to grow its research and development activities and expand its operations in the Asia-Pacific region, multiple media reports said, citing a company statement.
The new funding round was led by existing venture capital investor ICT Fund.
Brijesh Pande, managing partner at ICT Fund, said KaHa is “well-placed to capitalise” on the fast-growing market opportunity in smart wearables.
KaHa was set up in Singapore in 2015 by Pawan Gandhi, Justin Tang and Sudheendra Shantaram. It runs an Internet of Things platform called CoveIoT for smart wearables. It also enables its partners, such as Titan, and customers to use the latest technology and reduce their go-to-market time for smart products.
Titan, part of the diversified Tata Group, had in 2017 invested $500,000 (Rs 3.2 crore then) in KaHa to buy a stake of up to 10%. It has also previously raised funding from Singapore-based Spring SEEDS Capital and early-stage Indian venture capital fund YourNest.
It wasn't immediately clear whether Titan invested in the new round as well.
Gandhi, who is also the company's CEO, said the fresh capital will also help KaHA discover “more breakthrough products” that can support other verticals and increase the Cove platform’s availability and accessibility.
In the wearable technology sector, a handful of other companies have also raised funding over the past year or so in India. Last month, Bengaluru-based medical wearable device startup Ten3t Healthcare Pvt. Ltd raised pre-Series A funding from Investment Trust of India’s ITI Growth Opportunities Venture Fund.
In November last year, fitness devices maker GOQii raised equity capital and venture debt in a Series B round of funding led by Japan's Mitsui & Co.
