Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research
Title: About Dion Hinchcliffe
Dion Hinchcliffe is an internationally recognized business strategist, bestselling author, enterprise architect, industry analyst, and noted keynote speaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in digital strategy, the future of work, and enterprise IT. He works with the leadership teams of large enterprises as well as software vendors to raise the bar for the art-of-the-possible in their digital capabilities.
He is currently Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. Dion is also currently an executive fellow at the Tuck School of Business Center for Digital Strategies. He is a globally recognized industry expert on the topics of digital transformation, digital workplace, enterprise collaboration, API…...
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Today in Mountain View, California, my Constellation Research colleague Holger Mueller and I attended the Wipro Ventures Showcase, their first-ever confab around the enterprise investments they've made since their founding in 2015.
For its part, Wipro Ventures is a venture capital arm of Wipro that invests in early- to mid-stage startups building enterprise software tech and IT solutions. They are an incubator in how they provide a springboard for early-stage businesses and startups with the tools to help their startups grow (although they do not refer to themselves as such.) Wipro Ventures typically gets involved beyond the seed round, with most startups in the portfolio having a revenue in the $500K to $2 million range. Wipro Ventures has invested in over 20 startups, including Vulcan Cyber, IntSights, and vFunction. The firm says they are committed to helping startups succeed by providing them with access to Wipro's global customer base, deep domain expertise, and strong network of partners, as well as actual funding.
Wipro Ventures typically invests in startups across a range of enterprise software segments, including cybersecurity, app development, data, cloud infrastructure, automation , and (more recently) cloud integration solutions, as well as the white-hot artificial intelligence and generative AI sectors.
So far, the venture fund has a solid track record of success, with its portfolio companies having collectively raised over $1 billion in funding, when including well-known co-investors such as Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures.
The Crowd at Wipro Ventures Showcase Watching Demos of the Enterprise Startups. Credit: Dion Hinchcliffe
An Overview of Wipro Ventures
We spent the start of the showcase with Biplab Adhya, Managing Partner, Wipro Ventures who gave us an overview of Wipro Ventures. They've managed two enterprise tech funds so far:
- Wipro Ventures Fund I: This fund was launched in 2015 with funding of $100 million. This fund has invested in 16 startups across a range of enterprise software segments, including cybersecurity, app development, data, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps automation. Two notable portfolio companies from Fund I, Demisto (by Palo Alto Networks) and Moogsoft (by Dell), have been acquired by larger companies.
- Wipro Ventures Fund II: Coming off the success of Fund I, this second fund was launched in 2020 with a larger fund of $150 million. The fund is focused on investing in startups across the same enterprise software segments as Fund I, with an additional emphasis on specific vertical domains, such as 5G, AI, healthcare IT, and financial services.
Biplab was careful to note that Wipro Ventures consists of a small team and is perhaps the "best kept" secret in funding enterprise tech startups. However, they've had some notable exits and overall a successful track record in helping companies in this vital segment grow. Key to their success: Using Wipro's global customer footprint to drive sales growth for their portfolio companies. They are hoping to reach the CIOs and CTOs in the large enterprise space find fresh and compelling options to move their organizations into the future.
Exploring the Wipro Ventures Enterprise Startup Portfolio
After our session with Biplab, a larger session with Angeline Barrozo, Wipro Venture’s Global Head of Business Development, kicks off the Wipro Ventures Showcase in their impressive showcase auditorium. She noted, "we're going to have each of nine companies we have in today's showcase. I will be introducing the company showcase at each of one of three stations around the auditorium." So far, the briefings have been cogent examples of the types of companies that Wipro Ventures invests in: Early to mid-stage companies that are building innovative enterprise software solutions. (All of Wipro Ventures' investments have been in software so far.)
Not including the portfolio companies that have been acquired, here is a breakdown of the startups that Wipro Ventures is currently invested in along witth a group of co-investors:
Altizon is a global enterprise startup founded in 2013 that provides a platform for industrial IoT (IIoT). The company's flagship product, Datonis, is used by enterprises in the manufacturing and cleantech sectors for condition monitoring, predictive analytics, operations, and for driving consumer insights.
The company's IIoT platform is designed to help enterprises make better decisions by providing them with real-time insights into their operations. The platform collects data from a variety of sources, including sensors, machines, and people. It then uses this data to generate insights that can be used to improve efficiency, productivity, and safety. Altizon's customers include some of the world's leading manufacturers and cleantech companies, such as Coca-Cola, DuPont, and Siemens.
Founded in 2017, Cycognito is an enterprise tech startup that provides a platform for external attack surface management (EASM). EASM is a cybersecurity practice that focuses on identifying and managing the risks posed by an organization's external assets, such as websites, cloud infrastructure, and exposed APIs.
Cycognito's platform uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to scan the internet for exposed assets, identify potential vulnerabilities, and prioritize risks. The platform also provides recommendations for remediation and mitigation.
Functionize is an enterprise startup that provides an intelligent software testing platform. The platform employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the software testing process, helping enterprises improve the quality of their software products and services. The platform can automated test creation, est automation, and provides detailed test intelligence.
Functionize was founded in 2013 and its platform is used by a wide range of organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and healthcare providers.
Headspin is an tech startup that provides a digital experience intelligence platform. The platform wields artificial intelligence and machine learning to test and monitor mobile, web, and audio/video applications in real time, helping businesses to ensure the quality of their user experience.
Headspin was founded back in 2015, it positions itself as a "global omnichannel testing Platform for perfecting digital experience." The platforms offers real-time testing, AI-powered insights, and global coverage.
Immuta is a data security startup that provides a platform for managing and governing access to sensitive data. The company's platform uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate the process of granting and revoking access to data, helping organizations to comply with regulations and reduce the risk of data breaches.
The platform provides automated access control, data lineage, auditing, and reporting. The company describes its product as "architected to integrate seamlessly into your cloud environment, providing native integrations with the leading cloud vendors. Following the NIST cybersecurity framework, Immuta covers the majority of data security needs for most organizations."
Kibsi is a startup that provides a no-code computer vision platform that allows businesses to build and deploy computer vision applications in minutes, they claim. Kibsi's platform uses a drag-and-drop interface and pre-trained models to make it easy for businesses to get started with computer vision without having to hire specialized engineers. Kibsi does more than just identify objects, it adds context and relational rules to computer vision through machine learning and proprietary algorithms.
Kognitos is an enterprise startup that provides a platform for business process automation (BPA). The company's platform uses generative AI to automate complex business processes with human language, instead of code. This means that business users can automate their processes without having to rely on technical resources.
Founded in 2018, the Kognitos platform is used by a wide range of organizations from Fortune 500 to public sector. Kognitos can automate almost any process with human language. The platform is self-service, so business users can automate their processes without having to involve IT. This can save both time and money.
Lilt is a digital transformation service that was founded in 2015 that provides a machine learning-powered translation platform for businesses. The platform helps businesses to translate their content into multiple languages quickly and accurately, without having to hire in-house translators.
The Lilt platform integrates with a variety of content management systems and other tools, so businesses can easily integrate it into their multi-language workflows. Notably, the Lilt platform can learn from previous translations and improve its accuracy over time.
NetSpring is an enterprise tech startup that offers a platform for operational intelligence. The company's platform uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to help businesses make better decisions by providing insights into their operational data.
The Netspring platform specifically provides real-time insights into operational data, so businesses can make better decisions faster. The platform also allows businesses to collaborate on operational data, so teams can share insights and make better decisions together and more rapidly.
Qwiet AI’s is a startup that offers a platform known as preZero tha combines SAST and SCA capabilities to reduce the attackability of applications, improve developer productivity and accelerate software delivery schedules.
The platform examines flow of data across an application and its components, detects vulnerabilities overlooked by siloed code analysis tools and determines if attackers can exploit code vulnerabilities..
Sealights provides a platform for testing and monitoring cloud-native applications. Founded in 2016, the Sealights' platform is designed to test cloud-native applications. This includes applications that are built using microservices and containers. The platform can learn from previous tests and improve its detection capabilities over time.
The Sealights' platform supports continuous testing. This means that businesses can test their applications continuously, so they can identify and fix problems as soon as possible.The platform offers real-time reporting to track the quality of their cloud-native applications and make improvements.
Founded in 2013, Securonix provides a security information and event management (SIEM) platform. The company's platform employs machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to help businesses to detect and respond to security incidents more quickly and efficiently.
Securonix's platform collects data from a variety of sources, including logs, network traffic, and endpoint data. This allows the platform to get a holistic view of the environment and identify potential threats. Securonix's platform correlates data from different sources and visualizes it in a way that is easy to understand. This helps analysts to quickly identify and respond to emerging security incidents.
Spartan Radar is the developer of a radar technology designed to create real-time radar imagery of very high resolution resolution. The company provides increased sensor -- especially automotive radar -- performance through software-only technologies and​ applies their expertise in dgital signal processing to automotive applications.
Squadcast is an incident management software for site reliability engineering (SRE) and DevOps. It provides a modern incident response with an easy-to-use actionable alerting platform that offers the several capabilities including bottom-up adoption of SRE practices, a centralized system reliability dashboard, and automation of incident response workflows.
Tradeshift is a startup that offers a platform to transform and digitize the supply chain, using cloud technology to improve Source-to-Pay (S2P) business processes. Its BPaaS deployment of its cloud based P2P platform solution for customers globally offers a managed marketplace, catalog enablement, Req-to-Pay workflow, e-invoicing, global compliance, mobility enabled access and global supplier risk management.
Tricentis provides a platform for continuous testing. The company's platform, as most of the companies on this list do, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help businesses to automate their testing processes, so they can release software more quickly and with fewer defects.
Their platform supports continuous testing for DevOps teams. This means that businesses can test their software continuously, so they can identify and fix defects as soon as possible. Tricentis integrates with a variety of other tools, such as Jira, GitLab, and Confluence. This makes it easy for businesses to use Tricentis alongside their existing workflows and tool chain.
Vectra provides a platform for detecting and responding to emerging cyberthreats. Founded in 2013, Vectra's platform integrates with a variety of threat intelligence sources, so businesses can get real-time information about emerging threats. Something I've referred to as a foundation for Applied Threat Intelligence.
Their platform can automate the response to threats, so businesses can take action quickly and effectively. It also provides businesses with detailed reporting and analytics on their security data. This helps businesses to identify areas where they can improve their security posture.
vFunction is an architectural observability manager and a powerful tool to reduce technical debt. One of the more personally interesting startups, it analyzes application architecture, identifies domains, pinpoints sources of "cross domain pollution" to manage technical debt and drive continuous modernization.
The platform provides observability, visibility, and tooling to assess, understand, track, and manage architectural technical debt in enterprise applications now and as it grows over time.
Yugabyte provides a scalable, high-performance, and globally-distributed database platform. Founded in 2016, the company's platform is based on the open-source YugabyteDB project, which is a fork of the popular Apache Cassandra database.
Their platform is globally distributed, which means that it can be used to store and process data in multiple regions. This makes it ideal for applications that need to be available to users around the world. The platform is also open source, which means that it is free to use and modify. This makes it a good choice for organizations that want to have more control over their database infrastructure.
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