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| Eka secures $10 mn funding from Nexus |
| BS Reporter / Chennai/ Bangalore Oct 08, 2009, 00:45 IST |
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Eka Software Solutions, a Bangalore-based multi-commodity trade and risk management solutions vendor, has secured funding of $10 million from venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners. Nexus, which primarily invests in early stage companies in the range of $1-10 million, has invested in Eka from their second fund which has a corpus of $220 million.
Eka intends to use the fund to enhance its R&D capabilities, strengthen its sales capabilities in the US, Europe and emerging markets, and explore possible acquisition opportunities in the US and Europe.
“Eka is well-positioned to take advantage of the growing need for commodity trade and risk management software. The new funding will allow us to further enhance our technical, support and sales capabilities, and help capitalise on present opportunities to accelerate our growth,” said Manav Garg, founder & CEO of Eka Software Solutions.
The company, with a strength of about 200 people primarily provides multi-commodities trade and risk management solutions to its global clients who are in the global commodities markets. The software solutions being offered by helps buyers, sellers and traders of commodities better manage their business. across physical trading, risk management, derivatives, logistics and inventory. The company has clients such as CHS, Louis Dreyfus and Noble Group.
“Eka has created a product that solves real customer pain area. Given the high demand for sophisticated products that meet complex risk management requirements of firms in global commodities markets, Eka is well-positioned for greater success,” said Sandeep Singhal, co-founder of Nexus Venture Partners, who will now join Eka’s Board of Directors.
With funds of $320 million (including its first and second fund) under management, Nexus has an active portfolio of over 20 companies including Komil, Kirusa, Mapmyindia and Netmagic. Singhal said the company was looking basically to invest in four sectors including consumer services, technology, business services and clean technologies.
While the first fund of $100 million has already been exhausted, Nexus has just used 10-15 per cent of the second fund so far. “We are looking at a 3-4 years investment period,” adds Singhal.
He said the reason why they decided to invest in Eka was that the company has remained a product focussed company addressing a niche category. “Unfortunately in
India, many product companies end up becoming services companies. But in this case, Eka has never changed it’s course,” he added.
Bangalore-based Eka was earlier seed-funded by the GP Group, a conglomerate with interests across shipping, manufacturing, real estate development and hospitality.
Eka was recently selected by Nasscom as one of India’s top 10 emerging software companies and has customers who are major players in the global commodity market. The products help buyers, sellers and traders of commodities manage their business across physical trading, risk management, derivatives, logistics, inventory and P&L. The company’s clients include AWB, GARMCO, Oman Cables, CHS, Louis Dreyfus and others.
The market for commodity trade and risk management in Asia alone is estimated at $100-million (approximately Rs 470 crore).
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