SingTel Innov8, the venture capital arm of Singtel, has bought a 23.4% stake in data center efficiency software maker Sentilla for US$15m.

Other Sentilla investors include Claremont Creek Ventures and Onset Venture.

Sentilla's products include energy management software, virtual meters and analysis tools that are delivered as a service as well as on premise using a physical or virtual appliance.

In recent times, data center infrastructure management solutions such as Sentilla have been finding increasingly adopted inside the data center, challenged with rising power costs and increasing legislation surround carbon dioxide emissions.

The tools allow for the charging back of power use by department or company in a hosted or cloud environment and allow for capacity planning, among other things.

Sentilla was formed in 2003 and its technology is now in its sixth generation.