Mindtree founders-backed Mela Ventures invests in IoT start-up

Doppelio, a leading IoT test automation platform provider, has raised $1.2 million in pre-series A funding from Axilor Ventures & Mela Ventures.  

Founded in 2019 by Gaurav Johri, Sharmila Saha, and Rajesh Kathirvelu, Doppelio is already working with many Fortune 1000 companies from diverse industries, such as automotive, industrial engineering, manufacturing and connected products. 

The Bengaluru-based start-up enables companies to rapidly test IoT apps by virtualising and simulating devices at scale. The platform enables the testing of IoT applications for any device, protocol, and scenario.  

Fortune 1000 to emerging growth leaders across industries leverage Doppelio’s IoT test automation platform to reduce dependence on physical devices, reduce the risk of failure, faster time to market and lower the cost of quality. 

Incidentally, research organisations have estimated that the number of IoT devices will exceed 40 billion by 2026, with a strong CAGR. Further, the number of connected endpoints is expected to be even higher.  

Due to this extensive scale, it is imperative that organisations guarantee their products function seamlessly, minimise product recalls, and, most importantly, prevent any negative consequences on users.  

Lab testing of IoT applications, however, is time-consuming, expensive, and still insufficient, which, in turn, increases the time to market and the risk of failure of connected solutions. 

With Doppelio, companies can test a wide range of functionalities (including FOTA, remote command and control) and test for performance with up to a million devices. 

“The response we are getting from large global enterprises validates that we are solving an important problem for these companies. As connected products proliferate in the coming years, we expect Doppelio to become a critical piece in the IoT ecosystem, we are excited to have Mela and Axilor as investors and this funding will deepen our investments in the product and go-to-market,” said CEO Johri. 

Krishnakumar Natarajan, Managing Partner at Mela Ventures, believes that Doppelio is on a path to becoming the category leaders and become one of the game-changing global product company out of India. 

Mela Ventures is co-founded by Natarajan & N S Parthasarathy, and aims to put Indian B2B SaaS companies that are solving real-world challenges on the global map. In addition to investment, they also provide guidance and support to achieve collective goals defined by their portfolio companies.