Bangalore-based NextGen raises funding, welcomes Phanindra Sama on board
Bangalore-based technology enabled CSR & Sustainability Management startup, NextGen PMS Pvt. Ltd. has announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding through a syndicate between Mumbai Angels and a group of strategic investors, based out of India and the Silicon Valley. Phanindra Sama (redBus.in founder) led the deal for Mumbai Angels and will join the Board of NextGen. The current round of funding will be used to expand the team and acquire more customers while simultaneously augmenting the technology base.
NextGen PMS Pvt. Ltd. provides carbon advisory services ranging from carbon footprint estimation, data visualization and analytics, footprint reduction modeling and emissions bench-marking. NextGen currently works with Fortune 500 clients across 16 sectors including Bharat Petroleum, HDFC Bank, Vodafone Foundation amongst others.
BITS Pilani and IIM Bangalore alumnus Abhishek Humbad along with Richa Bajpai from Rajasthan University and IIM Bangalore, co-founded NextGen PMS when they were 21. The company was previously incubated at NSRCEL, IIM-Bangalore and TBI, BITS-Pilani.
Phani was excited to contribute to a company by fellow BITSians (alumnus of BITS Pilani) and said, "Happy to join the board of the company started by my BITS-Pilani Junior, Abhishek, and Richa. Look forward to working with you guys!" He added,‘NextGen is amongst the few product companies in India that can scale well in the global market too. Through the cloud and mobile based p3 platform, we see a huge potential for them to become a global market leader’.
NextGen claims to have developed India’s first cloud and mobile based CSR and Sustainability Management platform, 'p3', that helps companies track, monitor, evaluate and report on their CSR and Sustainability performance. Corporates and development institutions currently use p3 for management of approximately Rs.500 crore of CSR capital annually, while also reporting on national standards like Section-135 (CSR Law of Companies Act,2013) and global standards like the Global Reporting Initiative, United Nations Global Compact amongst others. The p3 platform reduces the overheads of CSR projects, increases transparency and uses data to ensure maximum impact for the end beneficiary. Mindtree, the global IT major mentored the NextGen team for the development of p3 platform.
Bijou Kurien, a retail sector veteran and former chief executive (lifestyle) at Reliance Retail, who is now a board member at L Capital Asia (the private equity arm of French luxury giant LVMH) will be joining the board of NextGen with this investment. He said,
The young and passionate team at NextGen has shown great execution skills with a proven track record of working with large clients and delivering value through technology. The p3 platform is a win-win for all stakeholders.
Sunil Chandiramani, Ex National Director of EY and an investor in NextGen praised the current legal framework of the country, "India’s new CSR Law has acted as a catalyst and has opened up a huge domestic market for NextGen. Managing development projects and measuring impact is a growing trend globally."
Basab Pradhan , Ex-Global Sales head of Infosys, currently based in the Silicon Valley is also an investor in the company. He believes that with many countries making CSR spend and ESG disclosure mandatory, and increasing pressure from stakeholders to track, target and trace billions of dollars of development capital transparently, a huge market has opened up for 'Technology for Good' globally, and NextGen has a clear first mover advantage.
The young promoters of NextGen are looking forward to building a global product and application business with their pioneering technology, partnering with leading socially and environmentally conscious corporates and institutions.
