iKen Solutions Pvt Ltd, an IIT Bombay research spin-off, has received an undisclosed amount in funding from India Innovation Fund (IIF). As part of the transaction, Sharad Sharma, former CEO, Yahoo R&D, India, and Ashwin Raguraman, VP, IIF, will join the board of iKen Solutions as India Innovation Fund nominees.
Siddharth Goel, CEO, iKen Solutions, said, “From a ‘great to have’ technology, personalised analytics has emerged as a ‘must have’ technology. The investment from IIF will help us scale our execution capability and at the same time help leverage collaborative linkages and access markets.”
Mumbai-based iKen is co-promoted by Rajendra M Sonar, a professor at IIT Mumbai, and serial entrepreneur Siddharth Goel. iKen Solutions is the third company Goel has been involved with, Cellent Technologies and Start Enterprises being the previous two. He holds a bachelors degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and has also worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and Diamond Cluster International.
The company, which began operations in 2008, has developed Mooga, a hybrid artificial intelligence analytics framework for personalisation at the individual consumer level in real time. Mooga can integrate into any Web service, application, or access interface and treat individual customers, according to their personal tastes and behaviours. The company claims that the technology will enable consumer centric companies in the telecom, digital content delivery, media, Internet and banking and financial services sector to provide a high degree of personalised service to their customers.
IIF is an early stage venture capital fund promoted by NASSCOM AND IKP Knowledge Park. Set up in 2009, the fund invests at the early stage startups with a focus on businesses in information and communication technology and life science sectors. The fund’s investments include Mitra Biotech, Surewaves, Sedemac Mechatronics, and Shantani Proteome.
“iKen is already working with strategic partners of our fund. Since iKen’s solutions are relevant across multiple sectors, we see its engine powering multiple Internet, mobile and financial service businesses in the days to come,” added Raguraman.
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