The Chennai Angels (TCA), one of India’s leading angel investment groups, has invested INR 3 Crores in Jidoka, a company involved in automation of visual defects and audio testing, based out of Chennai. A follow-on investment of INR 3 Crores has also been committed for a second tranche, later this year. 

Jidoka specializes in automating the detection of visual defects and audio testing – processes that are highly subjective by nature across industries such as automotive, packaging, pharmaceuticals, electronics, FMCG and general manufacturing. After establishing a Product-Market Fit in India across industries, Jidoka will invest funds to enhance their product for international markets and grow to North America and subsequently to Europe.

Jidoka Technologies make the digital transformation journey in quality control seamless for manufacturers by aligning to Industry 4.0. The goal is that manufacturing companies should work smarter, not harder when it comes to inspection activities. In other words, manufacturing companies should use their expertise to manage exceptions and not waste it on mundane repetitive tasks.

Mr. Sekar Udayamurthy, Co-Founder & CEO, Jidoka Technologies said, “We have been approaching multiple VCs over the last quarter. Rather than it being Q&A grilling sessions, TCA have been a partner in our journey of fund raising. They not only helped us position ourselves better with Angel investors but are also starting to help us structure our forward-looking business plan and help us with challenges that we will see in the next stage of growth of the company. Our sincere thanks to TCA and its experienced leadership for their mentorship and commitment and we are excited and looking forward to the continued journey with them. We also would like to thank Sathish, Kabita, Sunitha for their thoughtful guidance during the funding process.

Mr. Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan, Director and CEO, Cavinkare Pvt Ltd (Lead Investor from TCA) said, “Jidoka operates in a space that is of critical relevance to most companies today. The team has built a good array of technology-based product & services solutions that help achieve benchmark quality in manufacturing. We do believe that they can scale up globally as well. At TCA, we look forward to partnering with them in this progress and help them scale greater heights”.

“Pursuit of excellence in manufacturing quality, that sets world standards, is the chosen path of many young manufacturing leaders in India. Helping them in this process are two innovators, with education from IIT, BITS and Cornell and experience in deep technology applications, through their venture Jidoka. Impeccable quality of delivered products using high speed and accurate Machine vision hardware and software is the future of zero-defect delivery. Krishna Iyengar, Vinodh Venkatesh and Sekar Udayamurthy believe that automated process rigour with deep tech product inspection alone can deliver safe and secure products to consumers, be it a tablet of medicine or a component in an electric vehicle. A belief that The Chennai Angels are aligned with,” said Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, ex-vice chairman and ex-CEO of Cognizant and Chairman of ICT Academy.