Accenture buys India's VC-backed Flutura

The size of the transaction was not disclosed. Accenture said that Flutura would strengthen its industrial AI services offering with a view to improving the performance of plants, refineries, and supply chains and helping clients accomplish their net-zero goals faster.

Vertex led a USD 7.5m investment in Flutura in 2017, supported by Indian private equity firm Lumis Partners and The Hive, a US-India seed fund and start-up incubator. Earlier funding rounds in 2013 and 2015 were provided by The Hive and Microsoft Accelerator Bangalore, respectively, according to AVCJ Research. Hitachi High-Technologies invested in the company in 2018.

Flutura’s approximately 110 professionals specialise in industrial data science services for manufacturers and other asset-intensive companies. Its AI platform helps clients assess, predict, and improve the asset performance, reliability, throughput and energy efficiency outcomes of production and manufacturing facilities, a statement said.

In addition, industrial engineers and data scientists use the platform – which processes data from disparate IT and operations technology systems – to develop digital models of industrial assets.

Vertex, which is owned by Temasek Holdings, has previously identified Flutura as a beneficiary of its ability to leverage the Singapore state-controlled investor’s network. Ben Mathias, a managing partner with Vertex in India and Southeast Asia, told AVCJ in 2017 that the team introduced Flutura to several potential customers prior to investing.

Srikanth Muralidhara, Flutura’s founder, added in 2020 that the company used to lose out on contracts to more mature rivals. “Once the [Vertex-led] round was finalised, we won over many risk-averse customers,” he said “Temasek has invested in a lot of engineering companies in Asia and are a stone’s throw away from Vertex.”

Accenture has completed a string of acquisitions as part of efforts to build out its data and AI capabilities. These include data science player Albert in Japan, Analytics8 in Australia, and India-based Bridgei2i and Byte Prophecy. Accenture has found in past studies that most companies are not very AI-mature and have barely scratched the surface of the technology’s potential.

“Flutura democratises AI for engineers, enabling manufacturing and other asset-intensive companies with the carbon intelligence to reduce emissions, energy consumption and lost output due to unplanned downtime of industrial assets. This acquisition will power industrial AI-led transformation for our clients globally,” said Senthil Ramani, Accenture’s applied intelligence lead for growth markets.

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