Chinmay Bidkar
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19 July 2016, India :
Star India Pvt. Ltd has invested close to $10 million in data science and analytics startup Sagacito Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Sagacito is a mobile-first, cloud-based enterprise solutions company that claims it will use internal and external databases to create measurable insights that go beyond conventional data manipulation and computation capabilities.
“Star India has identified big data and analytics as one of the focus areas, and Sagacito is one of our partners in this pursuit. To help Sagacito accelerate its growth, Star India has decided to make a minority investment in this business,” said Prateek Garg, head of business development at Star India.
Star India is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, while Sagacito
was founded by two former top executives Ravi Dhariwal and Arunabh Das Sharma at Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL).
According to the two people familiar with the deal, Star India has invested $1 million in Sagacito against 10% equity and another $8.2 million through a so-called build-and-operate model under which it will use the start-up’s tools and services for five years. Star India declined to confirm the size of the transaction and other details.
Sagacito aims to help businesses maximize market share and margins through predictive data analysis. Star India is its first client.
Arunabh Das Sharma said, “We’re trying to find solutions to very real problems of businesses that exist. All business leaders are coming to terms with tougher times, especially with so much technological disruption; companies are looking to cut costs and are clearly not making enough margins.”