Investing in Detect Technologies

Loss in productivity and issues in operational reliability are ubiquitous problems in the industrial sector today. The majority of these issues can be attributed to lack of intelligent real-time data, siloed technology and insufficient insights for enabling effective decision-making. We believe that using technology-led solutions to address these issues around industrial productivity and reliability cuts across all industries and offers a $50Bn+ revenue potential opportunity.

Detect Technologies, our portfolio company, is addressing this large pain point based on a modular technology platform that aims to ensure continuous industrial uptime. Detect delivers impact through real-time intelligent monitoring on the back of their software platform (T-Pulse) supported by IoT offerings (NOCTUA and GUMPS). Across more than 25 clients, Detect’s products have led to higher schedule certainty, enhanced resource visibility, reduced equipment failure, increased asset life and lesser downtime.

Detect was incorporated in February 2016 at IIT-Madras research park and was co-founded by four IIT-M alumni—Tarun Mishra, Daniel Raj David, Harikrishnan AS and Karthik R. In fact, Detect’s origins can be traced back to the research Tarun led while at IIT Madras between 2012 and 2014.

We first met Detect in mid-2017 when the company was very young and NOCTUA (an automated drone-based solution for internal and external asset inspection and monitoring) was the only operational product. At the time, the company was conducting pilots on their new product offering GUMPS (an intelligent sensor for pipeline monitoring to prevent leaks). We were extremely impressed by the founding team’s technical prowess, early traction and broader vision and led a $3.3 Mn round in November 2018 after tracking their progress for more than a year.

Detect has clearly come a long way since. The team has continued to invest in R&D to enhance its existing product offerings and has also launched a new integrated SaaS platform, T-Pulse, which enables enhanced safety and productivity of plants during their scheduled maintenance/turnarounds. Detect has achieved this product excellence while delivering 10X revenue growth in a capital-efficient manner.

In 2020, during the global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, industrial companies had shown strong willingness to adopt automation solutions for enhanced productivity and output with minimal human interventions. This has proven to be a strong tail-wind for Detect, significantly accelerating its growth.

From no international presence 24 months ago, the team has now created client relationships across multiple geographies with almost half the revenues coming internationally. Detect has also demonstrated the ability to win large global enterprise deals (a major one to be announced soon).

Detect currently offers world-class global products across a multitude of process industries, such as Oil & Gas, Steel, Power, Chemical and Fertilizers, and has presence across various locations worldwide with a very strong revenue pipeline.

We are proud to continue our long-lasting relationship with Detect and co-lead their new round of financing alongside Accel as the company continues its march towards becoming a global IoT and SaaS company with deep Indian roots.