Ventureast, Travelyaari execs’ seed fund backs tech product developer iauro

Pune-based technology product development company iauro Systems Pvt. Ltd has raised its first round of external capital from seed-stage fund Speciale Invest.

The investment will fuel iauro’s next phase of growth, the company said in a statement. It didn’t disclose the amount raised.

Speciale Invest is a new fund floated by Travelyaari co-founder Arjun Rao and former Ventureast executive Vishesh Rajaram earlier this year. The fund makes seed investments ranging from $100,000 to $1 million.

As part of the investment, Rajaram will join iauro's board of directors.

iauro was founded in 2009 by Anupam Kulkarni and Nilesh Ratnaparkhi. Both previously worked at IT company Persistent Systems. iauro is product development company focussed on delivering mobile, cloud and data analytics solutions that help enterprises transform their digital presence.

“Digital transformation is not a choice but a requirement for companies to grow in today’s business environment, and we look for iauro to be large contributor, working with brands in disrupting their industries through radical digital transformation solutions,” Rajaram said.

iauro follows a product outsourced development model where it forms a technology arm for mid-sized enterprises and startups and offers customised solutions. “We also have something that we call ‘solution accelerators’ where we have a set of pre-built solutions to help our customers optimise and grow their businesses,” Kulkarni told VCCircle.

The company claims to have delivered more than 450 solutions to its clients across India, the US and Europe. Its customers include BookMyShow, Tech Mahindra Ltd, FabHotels and Findmeashoe.com.

The 40-member company said it charges customers on a per-project basis; a project typically has a duration of six months. The average cost of a project is roughly around Rs 35-40 lakh.

“Digital transformation is an ongoing journey for most organisations. For example, we have been working with BookMyShow for nearly three-and-a-half years and have provided three solutions to them,” Kulkarni said.

Kulkarni also said that the company’s annual revenue will touch $1 million (Rs 6.4 crore) in nine to 12 months’ time from Rs 4 crore currently.

“Over the years, we have successfully built the company to this inflection point from where we see ourselves propelling to the next level of growth,” he said. “With the investment, we aim to build more solution accelerators which will help us serve our customers at a much faster rate.”