WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton makes his first investment in India in a Series-A round of funding for Gurgaon-based car tracking telematics solutions startup, Trak N Tell. The company will use the proceedings to expand its presence across the country.
The amount and names of other two investors along with Acton hasn’t been disclosed yet, though sources say the investment has been around the region of $3.5 million (Rs 23.3 crore).
The investment in the nine-year-old venture makes it the latest transaction in the country’s startup ecosystem, which involves a high-profile Silicon Valley-based tech entrepreneur. The last such investment was in April, when PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and Scott Banister, who was an early investor in Facebook and Uber, invested in Rs 8.6 crore in fin-tech startup ClearTax.
Founded in 2007, Trak N Tell provides sophisticated vehicle telematics solutions, which claims to allow for predictive engine failure, preventive maintenance notification and fuel monitoring system, among others.
Pranshu Gupta, the chief executive of Trak N Tell, told media, “We are very pleased to have Brian on board, and he’s been of tremendous help in terms of strategizing, and planning for the company’s next stage of growth.”
Acton, 44-year-old, is primarily known for founding mobile messaging app WhatsApp, along with Jan Koum. Commenting on the investment in a mail he said, “Pranshu has extremely interesting plans for the Indian automotive market and I am very excited to help him scale his business further as an investor.”
Its flagship device, Intelli7, is a GPS-based unit that enables car owners and fleet owners to track their vehicles and even immobilise them in case of a theft. Consumers can buy it Rs 5,999, which covers the cost of the hardware, SIM services and cloud-based services for a period of three years. The assembly of the Intelli7 unit has been outsourced to a local manufacturer.
Gupta stated that the startup, which caters to both enterprise and retail segments, expects to be in Bangalore by the end of the next quarter, followed by Mumbai.
“We also plan to utilise a portion of the funding round towards scaling up our R&D, as well as for marketing. We are targeting to be in 500-1,000 stores by the end of the current calendar year,” Gupta said.
An alum of the University of Florida, Gupta has also had a stint with Yahoo, seed-funded the company with Rs 3-Rs 4 crores. According to the CEO, Trak N Tell, which reported revenue of Rs 2 crore in the last fiscal, plans to close the financial year 2017 with a topline of about Rs 3-Rs 4 crores.
