Industrial IoT Startup Altizon Raises $7M To Take On PTC, Siemens

Altizon takes on smart manufacturing giants PTC and Siemens with a fresh $7 million in funding, which the company is using to expand its channel partner activities and invest in its end-to-end software capabilities.

Industrial Internet of Things startup Altizon has raised a fresh $7 million in funding to challenge PTC, Siemens and other major players in the smart manufacturing space.

The startup, which has offices in Scotts Valley, Calif., and Pune, India, plans to use the funding to expand its global sales and marketing efforts, which includes more resources to throw at the company's channel program that counts Wipro, Tata Technologies and roughly 28 other partners on its roster. The company will also invest further in its three core products.

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Wipro's strategic investment firm, Wipro Ventures, was among the investors in Altizon's Series A round, which brings the company's total funding to roughly $12 million. The round was led by the Singapore subsidiary of TVS Motor Company, an Indian motorcycle manufacturer.

Altizon provides an end-to-end offering for industrial IoT deployments. They consist of Datonis Edge for connecting edge devices and analyzing their data, the Datonis core platform for advanced analytics and integration, and the Datonis Manufacturing Intelligence suite, which is preloaded with modules for productivity, quality, maintenance, energy profiling and traceability.

Vinay Nathan, CEO of Altizon, said those end-to-end capabilities, along with the company's cloud-agnostic stance, are two things that make the company stand out in the sea of industrial IoT players. He counted PTC's ThingWorx as its closest competitor while also making note of Siemens' MindSphere.

"From our perspective, our end-to-end stack and being cloud-agnostic are two major drivers," Nathan said. "Talking to larger companies, they want to have a provider that can provide all three layers and having the flexibility of being able to choose which cloud to go to."

Since Nathan started Altizon with two other founders in 2013, the startup has amassed 132 enterprise customers across 31 countries, including lead investor TVS Motors, Procter & Gamble and Ecolab, the CEO said. Forty of these customers have multiyear commercial contracts with Altizon.

These customers have, on average, experienced an 18 percent boost in overall equipment effectiveness, an 8 percent reduction in indirect overhead costs and a 3 percent reduction in energy expenses.

Altizon has also gained the recognition of research firms like Forrester, which named the company a breakout IoT vendor in India, and Gartner, which listed Altizon in its Magic Quadrant for IoT last year.

The company's channel partners—which include hardware providers, systems integrators and solution providers—make money with Altizon by taking a cut of the software subscription revenue while also providing integration and custom development services, according to Nathan. The company's channel program offers training and marketing resources, as well as priority support.

Rajesh Narasimhan, an Altizon board member and CEO of TVS Motor's Singapore subsidiary, said Altizon stood out in the competitive landscape of industrial IoT providers.

"After detailed assessments around industrial IoT platforms, we found Altizon’s technology portfolio of definitive value in driving digital transformation with industrial IoT," he said in a statement.