US’s Falcon Edge Capital, the hedge fund best known for its investments in ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd-run Ola and the National Stock Exchange in India, is now picking up stakes in early-stage startups.
vPhrase Analytics, which offers artificial intelligence (AI)-based business intelligence tools to automate data analysis and reporting, said on Tuesday that it has raised a $2-million Series A round from Bharat Innovation Fund and Falcon Edge Capital.
Bharat Innovation Fund is a deep-tech focused fund promoted by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). The investors infused $1 million each, as the company plans to scale its global operations, strengthen its team and launch a new product— Explorazor.
“So far, we’ve been working with some large enterprises in India and with some companies in Hong Kong and Singapore. Our plan now is to get into western markets. For that, we will first enter North America, starting with the US and Canada,” Neerav Parekh, founder and chief executive officer, vPhrase, said over the telephone. He did not, however, disclose the valuation of the company in the latest round.
“Going ahead, we want to hire more experienced staff to guide us along, as we set up offices and build sales force in North American markets. The funds will also be used to launch our latest product, Explorazor, an independent business intelligence and analytics platform, which provides ready-to-consume insights, with powerful collaboration features,” he added.
Founded in 2015 by Parekh, who has over 10 years of experience of working in different roles and setting up businesses in technology, marketing and finance,the company has built a product— Phrazor, that can gather data, structure the facts and apply language to describe it in words and generate insights, within seconds.
Falcon Edge has so far been a growth stage investor in India, with its portfolio including a number of prominent startups including payments firm MSwipe, content startup Dailyhunt and two-wheeler rental firm Bounce.
While its earlier investments were between $20-50 million, it is also eyeing smaller cheques now, evidenced by the vPhrase investment.
Since 2017, it has made 6 investments between $3 million and $10 million, including B2B supply chain startup Locus and Vue.ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) based start-up aimed at automating fashion retail, where it invested this year, according to data from Venture Intelligence.
The Times of India also reported on April 29 that Falcon Edge is eyeing smaller deals at an earlier stage. It also added that Falcon Edge is bullish on Indian startups although, as a hedge fund it has the option of investing in public as well as private companies.
Other US-based investment funds, such as Tiger Global and Steadview Capital, have also become aggressive on India this year after slowing down in the last few years. Mint reported on July 17 that Steadview plans to invest $500 million in growth-stage companies in India over the next two years
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