Through its venture capital unit ABB Technology Ventures (ATV), ABB has invested in Stellapps Technologies.

The funds were supplied as part of a Series B investment round that was led by IndusAge Partners. It included new investors Qualcomm Ventures and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Established in 2011, Stellapps Technologies is an end-to-end dairy supply chain solutions company based in India. It develops automated tools that leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) and advanced analytics to improve production and quality of milk in dairy farms, collection centres and processors.

“We’ve also worked closely with our control technologies business to complement ABB’s existing offerings, notably our manufacturing execution system (MES) business.”

ABB Technology Ventures managing director Grant Allen said: “Since meeting Stellapps, we’ve been impressed with their category-defining software and the large market opportunity ahead of them. We believe their technology will have a major impact on India’s thriving dairy economy, especially the many dairy farmers running smaller, home-based operations.

“We’ve also worked closely with our control technologies business to complement ABB’s existing offerings, notably our manufacturing execution system (MES) business, part of the ABB Ability Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) offering.”

Stellapps solutions include SmartMoo, an analytic solution covering the entire value chain from milk production to paying farmers.

The solution has also been designed to track an animal’s health and yield through a wearable sensor, measuring parameters such as milk quantity, storage conditions, transportation and distribution.

Stellapps has also initiated a strategic collaboration with ABB to streamline the dairy supply chain.

Stellapps CEO Ranjith Mukundan said: “Stellapps is entering a stage of accelerating growth, and this strategic group of investment partners will be very valuable to scale our technology platform.”