Sensegiz, a hardware startup which makes smart wearable devices, has raised around $500,000 from Karnataka Semiconductor Venture Capital Fund (KARSEMVEN). This is the first investment that the firm has made outside Bangalore and the first in a hardware company.
With a fresh pile of cash coming in, Sensegiz intends to set up a manufacturing unit in Mysuru. Moreover, it also plans to sell more than 1 lakh units by next year.
Commenting about the funding, Abhishek Latthe, CEO at Belgaum based Sensegiz, said,
We are manufacturing this completely in India. That’s why we got the funding. For many hardware startups, getting the initial amount is more difficult than getting subsequent rounds of funding. This round will help us get to the next level.
The two year old company’s focus is to design products that help keep its users safe, fit, happy and empowered. It designs and produces innovative products in the wearables & IoT space, claims company.
Founded by Abhishek Latthe and Apurva Shetty, the company has two products – Find and Star. Both the devices are sold across US and Japan. The devices pair up with any smartphone via Bluetooth Low Energy protocol.
Find is a track & find Bluetooth tag which can be used to prevent losing or misplacing objects like keys, bags, pets, laptops, phones etc.
The Star is a wearable smart tech product which can trigger automatic alarms on acquia if the user has a crash/fall/emergency. It tracks fitness and sleep quality, uses gestures to control phone functions and can display notifications on its screen.
Sensegiz is targeting the smartwatch market, which is poised to reach $32.9 billion by 2020, according to US-based Allied Market Research. As per the company’s founder, it will now tap the B2C segment. Till now, the company was working on B2B model.
Manish Kumar B, Assistant VP at Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Fund, said,
Sensegiz did its sourcing, assembly, research, all out of Karnataka, and has a proven global product. This was a right fit for us.
