Hero Electronix buys energy management startup Zenatix - Blume Ventures exits
Gurugram – May 29, 2018: Hero Electronix, set up by Hero Group in 2015 to tap emerging digital opportunities, on Tuesday said it has acquired energy management startup Zenatix Solutions Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount. As part of its fourth acquisition in a little over two years, Hero Electronix bought out all investors including Blume Ventures and Pi Ventures.
Reflecting on the deal, Blume Ventures founder and managing partner Karthik Reddy said, “It is a decent exit. Cannot complain.” However, he refused to divulge further details.
The acquisition comes more than a year after Gurugram-based Zenatix, an Internet of Things (IoT) startup, had raised funds worth Rs 8 crore ($1.18 million) in a round led by Pi Ventures in February 2017. Existing investor Blume Ventures had also participated in the round.
With the acquisition, Hero Electronix is looking to invest Rs 300-400 crore in IoT including consumer products, which it plans to launch later this year, founder-director Ujjwal Munjal told TechCircle. He added that while the overall outlay is Rs 1,200 crore for investments, Hero had already invested Rs 350 crore.
“We are looking at more than Rs 1,000 crore business in three to four years from IoT. For Zenatix, we are looking at over 100,000 deployments including those in international markets. Zenatix is strong with customers in retail and banking. Their solutions make systems more intuitive by collecting relevant and intelligent data,” Munjal said. He added that Hero plans to widen the reach of Zenatix by foraying into Southeast Asian markets, which face challenges similar to those of the Indian market.
Hero Electronix and Zenatix plan to work together to introduce new solutions to existing clients and enter new segments like hospitality and logistics through the deployment of IoT and emerging technologies.
Hero Electronix had looked at more than 100 startups before acquiring Zenatix, Munjal said. “Zenatix has married hardware with software, which can provide analytics and artificial intelligence through the data collected from the connected devices. They already had customers and were present in 1,500 locations,” Munjal said.
As sensors get cheaper, Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) expects India to have more than two billion IoT devices by 2020. Improving data connectivity and vast amount of real-time data are seen as bringing efficiency to industrial operations.
About Zenatix Solutions:
Zenatix is the leading provider of IoT powered energy and asset management solutions. Cofounded by alumni from IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad and UCLA, the company is backed by Hero Electronix and leverages its end-to-end IoT expertise to create ‘connected infrastructures’ for organizations with goals around energy efficiency and digital transformation. Their hardware light, software intelligent and wireless solution is easy to deploy, scalable and enables automated controls and detection of anomalies in operations.
Zenatix focuses on deploying IoT powered control and monitoring solutions at small to mid-sized buildings, which are deprived of automation systems such as BMS. Automation in small to mid-sized buildings is a global white space and the market opportunity is $50Bn+ in the US alone. For more info, visit: www.zenatix.com