iBus Networks & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, a startup that specialises in connectivity solutions inside buildings, has raised $2.2 million (Rs 15 crore) in series A funding from Vallabh Bhansali, co-Founder of Enam Securities; N Squared Management LLC and other investors.
The family office of Jagdish and Sandeep Mehta has also invested in iBus, the startup said in a press statement.
iBus will use the money to market its offerings across the country.
iBus, a four-year-old startup, provides connectivity solutions inside commercial buildings. It also lends itself to proximity marketing and IoT-led solutions through its proprietary technology, it said in the statement. It claims to work with malls, hotels, commercial premises and hospitals.
iBus was founded by Ram Sellaratnam, Subash Vasudevan and Sunil Menon. Before starting up, Sellaratnam was Infosys’ head of cloud offerings for Europe. Vasudevan was a principal technology architect at Infosys before launching iBus. On the other hand, Menon has worked with Skycell Telecom, TVS Interconnect Systems and Essar Telecom Retail.
Cipher-Plexus, which is also an investor in iBus, acted as the investment banker for the transaction.
New board members
iBus has appointed former Micromax chairman Sanjay Kapoor as non-executive chairman while former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai has been roped in as an advisory board member. Both Kapoor and Pai are early investors in iBus.
Recently, Kapoor joined health and wellness product and services firm VLCC Health Care Ltd as an independent director.
Pai, who is chairman of venture capital firm Aarin Capital, is an active angel investor with a portfolio of over a dozen startups. As per VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle, he was one of India’s top angel investors in 2015, picking up stakes in 18 startups including Gingercrush, Licious, OnlineTyari and other consumer tech firms.
Promoters including Bhansali had sold Enam Securities to Axis Bank in 2010 and that unit is now known as Axis Capital. Bhansali had been making random deals through his own private family company and last year picked a stake in Balaji Telefilms.