Qatar-based trading and services company Mannai Corporation has helped Swiss-based cloud computing company Nexthink raise $5.5m.
Mannai was joined leading the series C round by prior backers of Nexthink, venture firms Auriga Partners and Venture Incubator. Venture Incubator was established by US-based consultancy McKinsey & Company and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, the Swiss university, with backing from 10 corporations including ABB, Credit Suisse, Novartis and Nestle.
Nextthink’s technology audits what users are doing in real time. The round takes the total raised by the company in its history to $13.1m. The company was founded in 2004 within the artificial intelligence laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. The company has also opened its US headquarters in Alpine, Utah, with Chris Lundell , joining as president of Americas. Lundell was previously chief executive of Corda Technology, a business information company bought by entrepreneur Josh James last year.
The company raised CHF6m in 2007 in its series B.
Alekh Grewal, Mannai Corporation Chief Executive Officer and NEXThink Board Member, said: "We were impressed with the NEXThink team and saw that they had created a truly innovative and disruptive product which is why we became their first VAR in the Middle East a couple of years ago. We have had a successful relationship ever since so when the opportunity arose to invest, we did to solidify and strengthen our commitment to NEXThink."
The company said it grew its number of customers by 50% in the fourth quarter of last year to 300.