Mumbai-based private equity firm Kedaara Capital has announced a $240 million investment in Axtria, an agent artificial intelligence (AI) company serving the global life sciences industry.
The transaction consists of a secondary component to provide early investors with exits and company-sponsored stock buybacks.
According to Tracxn data, US-based Sequoia Capital was one of Axtria's early investors, offering $2.5 million in the 2010 Series A round. Prior to the investment by Kedaara Capital, the company last raised $150 million from the Bain Capital Tech opportunity in 2021, valued at $850 million. According to Tracxn, the company was valued at over $1 billion in 2021.
“We're committed to providing a range of services to our customers,” said Sunish Sharma, Founder and Managing Partner of Kedaara Capital.
In particular, this is Kedaara Capital's second investment in AI and data analytics companies this year. In January, it invested more than $350 million in Impetus Technologies, a data analytics and AI solutions company that caters to Fortune 500 companies in the US and Europe. One of the investment focuses was expanding the company's generative AI and analytics business line. Investment in Axtria is our second investment in AI and data analytics companies. With a focus on AI, data analytics and cloud delivery, Axtria's focus lies in the life sciences industry.
So far, Kedaara Capital's investments include a $60 million investment in Payments platform Juspay, co-leading the $200 million Series F round alongside Wellington of the Logistics Service Provider Porter. In July, it completely withdrew its interest in Aavas Financiers, an affordable housing finance company that it first invested in. £800 crores in 2023.
Larger portfolio
Some of the large investments of PE companies include a £A $1,500 investment in ASG Eye Hospitals in 2022, a $229 million Series D in SaaS Fintech Player Perfios, and a stake in Edtech Provider K12 Techno Services.
It is worth pointing out that interest in Agent AI is steadily growing around the world. This technology is a derivative of generative AI, adaptable and learnable on its own, and requires minimal human intervention. Agent AI, which was typically built for specific repeatable tasks, has discovered a lot of use in customer service and invoices.
Investors have not eschewed it, and have put hundreds of millions of dollars into such companies. Earlier this year, health technology startup Innovaccer raised $275 million from clutches from investors such as B Capital Group, Banner Health, Danaher Ventures, Generation IM, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft's Venture Investing Arm and M12. Innovaccer's products focus primarily on providing a data platform that integrates patient data. However, in recent years, the company has developed AI products like Sara AI, which can automate repetitive tasks and provide insights from a large amount of medical data.
Even AI giants like Openai and Anthropic have launched tools that help developers build their own AI agents on the platform.
Agent AI startup AtomicWork, returning to India, has raised a $25 million Series A round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Blume Ventures and Peak XV. The company's Agent AI platform focuses on automating everyday processes, particularly for IT teams within the enterprise.
