Location analytics startup Locale.ai, electric mobility firm MetroRide raise funding

By Anuj Suvarna

  • 12 Aug 2021
Credit: 123RF.com

Bengaluru-based AI startup Locale.ai has raised $ 1.3 million funding in a seed round funding led by Chiratae Ventures and Better Capital.   

The round saw participations from angel investors like Manik Gupta, ex-CPO, Uber; Sidu Ponnapa, SVP, Engineering, Go-Jek; Kuldeep Dhankar, ex- SVP, Enterprise Sales, Clevertap; Khadim Batti CEO of Whatfix; Krish Subramanian CEO of Chargebee; Vivekananda HR, CEO of Bounce; Kaushik Subramanian, Product, Stripe and Praveen Jadav, ex-CEO of Paytm Money.  

Locale.ai aims to help every company with moving users (demand) / fleet (supply) provide the same level of tools and infrastructure and attain operational excellence,” Aditi Sinha, co-founder, Locale.ai, said.  

Rishabh Jain who is also the co-founder added: “If growth teams use Mixpanel or Amplitude to create cohorts and do A/B testing on websites and web apps, they should also have a product that allows them to experiment on their operational decisions and measure their impact”.   

Locale.ai is built for teams looking to experiment, gather feedback and move fast to improve their operational metrics, said Jain in a statement.  

Founded in March 2019 by Aditi Sinha and Rishabh Jain, Locale.ai aims to be an analytics and decision-making software to measure fleet performance, user behaviour and business health on the ground.   

The company offers its product in 3 verticals I.e., user (demand), fleet (supply) and order.   

Locale.ai currently operates in regions like Europe, Latin America, MENA, India, Singapore with companies such as Bounce (India), Dunzo (India), Zwings (UK), OMNi (Costa Rica) and has partnered with Wunder Mobility (Germany). 

MetroRide, an electric mobility platform, has raised an undisclosed sum in a financing round led by a consortium of investors from Silicon Valley and India.   

The round saw participations from executives like Shailesh Powdwal, Sudhir Pai, Bhagirath Tanna and entrepreneur Sushant Divakar.   

The fresh funds will be used to expand its EV fleet’s footprint in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR, the funds will also be allocated towards enhancing its AI engine – VIKI.   

Founded in 2020 by Girish Nagpal and Kaaman Agarwal, MetroRide aims to solve the problem of first and last-mile connectivity to high-frequency destinations like corporate parks, metro stations, educational hubs, among others.   

“This fresh infusion of funds indicates the trust and confidence of investors in new-age mobility startups like MetroRide. Unlike the other ride-hailing platforms our shared e-mobility solution is built for Affordable Daily Commute,” Girish Nagpal co-founder and CEO, MetroRide, said.  

He also added “We are excited and humbled to have received this funding, especially during these testing times. Today, we are asking people to give up their fossil fuel transport system and embrace the EV revolution with love”.   

The company operates through its AI-powered cloud-based application to provide 100 percent green travel solutions to its customers.  

MetroRide also claims to bolster the EV adoption landscape with its electric vehicles.   

Since its launch, the company said it has catered to 60,000 customers with an average of 2.01 minutes of wait time per ride and sees growth at 20% every week.