Star India Invests in Analytics Firm Sagacito

In India, predictive analytics and data science start-up Sagacito Technologies has secured c.$10m in a round of investment from Star India, a media and entertainment company owned by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox.

Founded by former Bennett, Coleman & Co execs Ravi Dhariwal and Arunabh Das Sharma, New Delhi-based Sagacito offers a proprietary suite of quant-based revenue management products; while its cloud architecture uses machine learning platforms to provide intelligence at the individual transaction level.

According to reports, Star India has invested $1m in Sagacito for a 10% share of the business, with the remaining funds invested through a build-and-operate model, under which Star India will use the latter firm's tools and services for five years. Through the investment, Sagacito plans to expand its team, and drive its product development and geographic expansion plans across a range of sectors including healthcare, hospitality and consumer products.

Commenting on the deal, Prateek Garg (pictured), Star India's Head of Business Development confirmed: 'Star India has identified big data and analytics as one of the focus areas, and Sagacito is one of our partners in this pursuit. To help Sagacito accelerate its growth, Star India has decided to make a minority investment in this business'.

Web sites: www.sagacito.com and www.startv.com .