IoT startup Machfu raises $1.6M

IoT startup Machfu reported its first round of institutional financing this week.

The Germantown, Md.–based company raised $1.6 million. The round was led by Vienna, Va.–based Blu Venture Investors.

Machfu focuses on Industrial Internet of Things. The company’s technology helps organizations integrate sensors, controllers and other devices into their systems. With the funding, the company is looking to expand in Smart Water and Smart Grid markets, as well as expand into oil and gas.

“The big problems impeding the growth of IIoT at scale are security and the sheer variety of application protocols, cloud connectivity protocols, wireless and wireline interfaces that make it difficult for legacy and IIoT technologies to communicate effectively,” CEO Prakash Chakravarthi said in a statement. “With the help of our new investment partners, we are enabling companies and organizations across a variety of industries to quickly and securely create applications that will help them to gather and utilize data, make sound business decisions with the additional information gleaned from that data, and increase their energy and operational efficiency as a result.”

The company is based at the Germantown Innovation Center. The company also recently received a $1 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and $100,000 from TEDCO.