Singapore-headquartered ESG platform Xcelerate Pte Ltd which owns Aparajitha, a provider of social, industrial compliances services has raised $25 million (Rs 207.20 crore) in equity.

Xcelerate offers tech-enabled, scalable compliance solutions in highly regulated and complex industries and markets, helping corporates maintain the highest levels of governance standards, manage risk and ensure compliance with various statutes, laws, and regulations, both internal and external.

The latest round was led by Federated Hermes Private Equity, a global private equity investor with assets under management of 757.6 billion as of December 31, 2023 and a 30-year track record of investing in innovative and high growth businesses.

Reacting on the fundraise Madhujeet Chimni, co-founder of Xcelerate, said, “With the support of this group of highly respected and reputed equity partners, we will aggressively expand into new segments under the GRC and ESG sectors. We feel confident in executing the business plan to build a regional platform with technology-led solutions, supported by strong entrepreneurs with rich domain expertise,” he said.

This round also saw participation from existing institutional investors, Altair Capital and Exacta Capital Partners. Xcelerate’s co-founders and other existing shareholders, too, invested in this round.

The current round of funding will be deployed for strategic acquisition opportunities and ongoing investment into business operations, team and technology, Chimni added.

With this investment, Sean Yoo, partner and head of APAC, Federated Hermes Private Equity, has joined the Board of Xcelerate.

"As the global regulatory and compliance reporting demands on businesses continue to grow, they are increasingly turning to high quality providers such as Xcelerate to meet these obligations in the most efficient manner. We look forward to working closely with Madhujeet Chimni and the management team, alongside Altair Capital and Exacta Capital Partners, to enable the business to seize the compelling market opportunity and support their long-term growth strategy," he said.

Since inception in 2021, Xcelerate has made significant investments in the social compliance and risk management segments in India and has concrete plans to expand into APAC and other markets in the near future.

Gary Ng, Partner at Altair Capital, said, "We are impressed with the achievement of Xcelerate, and are excited about the potential of the strategic acquisition opportunities. Hence, we are very pleased to pledge our continued support for Xcelerate to execute its business plan and deliver on its strong pipeline of acquisitions."

Xcelerate’s first platform acquisition was Aparajitha Corporate Services Private Limited (Aparajitha) in India. It now provides compliance services to approximately 2,000 large enterprise clients.

Post the investment by Xcelerate, Aparajitha successfully consolidated its position with acquisition of the business of Comply India, a majority stake in Simpliance Technologies and recently announced agreement to acquire the labour law compliance services business of Allsec Technologies Ltd.