Recognize, a US-based technology investment platform founded by a team of industry veterans including Frank D’Souza (Co-Founder and former CEO of Cognizant) and Raj Mehta (former President of Cognizant) on Thursday announced that it has raised about $1.3 billion for its inaugural fund. The details of the investors in the fund were not disclosed in the press release.

Recognize, which is focused on the $2-trillion technology services industry, has closed on three platform investments with over 4,000 employees. These are Ciklum, a leading cloud-native, a digital engineering firm with a delivery network across Eastern Europe; SpringML, one of the largest pure-play services organisations focused on Data, AI/ML, and other Google Cloud solutions; and Torc, a company redefining the future of work through a virtual talent platform for software engineers, says the release.

“The speed of technological innovation is changing entire industries, and it is imperative for businesses and governments to keep pace,” said D’Souza in the release. “The technology services market is 3.5x larger than the software industry, yet the sector has only attracted one-third of the amount of private equity capital, underscoring the opportunity for focused investors with a deep knowledge of the industry.”

Raj Mehta told BusinessLine that Ciklum and SpringML together have around 100 employees in India in cities like Chennai and Hyderabad, and the total number of employees would be around 1,000 by the end of the year.

According to D’Souza, Recognize in the next few weeks will announce the fourth deal. The market is quite robust, and the company is bullish about the opportunities in tech services. This is a historic moment for the technology and technology services industry. For entrepreneurs and founders, this is the moment to seize the opportunity when demand is robust and clients are compelled to adopt digital technologies, he said.