Guwahati, March 13: A venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley (US) has for the first time invested in a software technology company in the Northeast to help expand its operations.
The firm, Sierra Ventures, has pumped in US $7.5million (about Rs 50 crore) for Zaloni Technologies India, a Guwahati-based company that develops software and provides solutions in big data technology, to carry out product innovation, research and development and marketing besides global expansion.
"This is for the first time that the company has secured an overseas technology-focused fund. It indicates that our company and our solutions are exactly what clients need to move forward with their big data implementations. It is also a testament to our hard work and expertise," Zaloni Technologies' co-founder and chief executive officer Anirban Sharma told The Telegraph .
Sierra Ventures led the funding round with participation from Baird Capital, a Chicago-based venture firm. Big data are data sets that are so large or complex that they cannot be interpreted through traditional data processing applications.
Zaloni's clients primarily comprise Fortune 500 companies such as Verizon, UnitedHealth Group and American Express among others.
"Zaloni helps organisations deliver on the promise of big data. Our software platforms, Bedrock and Mica, enable customers to gain competitive advantage through organised, actionable big data lakes. Serving the Fortune 500, Zaloni has helped its customers build production implementations at many of the world's leading companies," Sharma said.
"We also provide professional services such as expert big data consulting and training services, helping clients plan, prepare, implement and deploy data lake solutions," he added. Since its inception in 2007, Zaloni Technologies India, a subsidiary of Zaloni Inc., headquartered in North Carolina, has been experiencing 100 per cent year-over-year growth.
It has also expanded its state-of-the-art development centre in the city, generating business and supporting local companies engaged in sectors such as catering, travel, hospitality and others.
"We have set up a world-class office with all amenities similar to that of a Silicon Valley company. Besides planning on infrastructure and identifying the technology to work on, we have focussed on our people too. We started with two engineers about seven years ago. Today, the team has grown to over 130," said Bijoy Bora, another co-founder and chief operating officer of Zaloni. Bora said the company had outsourced services to many local agencies to look after its day-to-day business needs.
"Catering, transportation and travel desk service sectors have benefited since we started functioning. Similarly, there has been an indirect generation of business in sectors such as banks, insurance companies and hotels as well. The growth in these sectors has been almost 30 to 50 per cent in the past three years."
As of now, the company's business operations in the Northeast are primarily confined to Guwahati. "We are expanding in the city. Being a specialised technology firm, we are dependent on a group of highly-skilled human resources. Such a competent workforce is available mostly in Guwahati," Bora said.
