Locobuzz, Enthu.AI, Ingenium raise funding; Sitics Logistic Solutions buys Quifers

By Beena Parmar

  • 11 May 2021
Credit: 123RF.com

Locobuzz Solutions, a Mumbai-based digital customer experience SaaS platform, today announced that it has raised Rs 9 crore capital in a pre-Series A round from Maharashtra State Social Venture Fund of SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd.  

The funds will be utilised to enhance technological capabilities of the platform, scale up the team across functions and for marketing and sales efforts, the company said in a statement. 

Founded in 2015 in Mumbai, Locobuzz converges technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analytics, and automation. It empowers B2C brands with real-time data analytics, consumer experience automation, consumer insights, and social media management such as publishing, listening, analytics and engagement. 

Ahmedabad-based IT firm AppItSimple, which offers CallHippo and SoftwareSuggest, has announced an investment of $200,000 (Rs 1.5 crore) in Enthu.AI. 

Ankit Dudhwewala, founder of AppItSimple, has also invested in his personal capacity. 

The funding will help Enthu.AI accelerate its engineering and sales efforts and move a step towards its vision of enabling contact centres to deliver better customer outcomes, the company said in a statement. 

"With this funding, we look forward to growing our team to 20 members in the next 6 months, mostly around outreach and engineering. The fresh capital infusion will help us scale up our business and move closer to our goals -- to grow our revenue by 7x by the end of 2021," the statement added.  

"For AppItSimple, this is a strategic investment as the company already operates CallHippo, one of the leading VoIP service providers in the international telephony market. Enthu.AI’s conversation AI platform is a logical extension of CallHippo’s telephony services and aligns with our vision of enabling contact centres to leverage voice data as a strategic asset for decision making,"  Dudhwewala said. 

Enthu.AI is agent evaluation and performance management software that helps contact centres improve the quality of their customer conversations and create high performing calling teams without juggling across call recordings, spreadsheets and people.  

India Accelerator-backed edtech startup Ingenium has raised an undisclosed sum from iAngel Network, Lead Angels and Indian Angel Network (IAN), among others. 

 The startup provides a SaaS platform to small and medium-sized institutes helping them to grow and manage their business better. IAN had previously invested in Ingenium early last year. 

Angel investor and former AVP of investments at HT Media, Anshu Gupta, also participated in the round through iAngel Network. 

Founded in May 2018 by Pramudit Somvanshi (IIT Roorkee 2018), Mohit Patel (IIT Roorkee 2018) and Aakash Gupta (IHM Mumbai, 2017), Ingenium provides mobile applications and web portals to coaching institutes, schools, home tutors and parents. The startup said it had connected over 150,000 students and 3,000 teachers in almost 100 cities all over India as of 30 April 2021. 

Sitics Logistic Solutions has announced the acquisition of majority stake in Quifers, a logistics-tech startup.  

The companies aim to unlock cross-selling and upselling opportunities as the combined entity would be able to offer a comprehensive package, which includes fulfilment and technology.  

Both these companies target manufacturers, distribution firms and e-commerce companies of various scales.  

“Sitics’ goal of digital transformation will get a boost with this acquisition. We see tremendous advantages for our clients by increasing efficiency and reducing costs by using the Quifers platform,” said Sikander A M, founder and chief executive officer of Sitics. 

“Also, there is a good overlap between the target customers of Sitics and Quifers. Both these companies target manufacturers, distribution companies, and ecommerce companies of various scales. Hence, there can be a unified and efficient sales process,” said Haridas T, cofounder and chief operations officer of Sitics.

KFintech, a registrar and transfer agent for initial public offerings and mutual funds, said on Tuesday it has invested an undisclosed amount in Artivatic.ai, marking its foray into insurtech.

Bengaluru-based Artivatic.ai will use the cash proceeds to widen its product portfolio, explore new business horizons and expand its footprint across India and other global markets.

The investment comes as KFintech looks to diversify its portfolio beyond offering registry services to mutual funds and corporates among others.

“Expanding our portfolio of services into insurance had been in the works, and our investment into Artivatic.ai is the first step in that direction,” Sreekanth Nadella, CEO of KFintech, said.

3D data edge perception platform maker Cron AI has raised $4 million (around Rs 29 crore) as part of its Series A funding led by VenturEast and Kitaki Ventures and joined by existing investor YourNest Venture Capital.

With this funding, Cron AI plans to further develop its technology and accelerate the delivery of its platform senseEDGE in untapped markets. The senseEDGE platform is in an advanced stage of development, with several patents already filed and test kits set to be shipped to global customers in the second half of 2021.

Cron AI was founded in 2015 by Tushar Chhabra and Saurav Agarwala. 

Haqdarshak

Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions Pvt Ltd announced fundraising of Rs 6.65 crore to close its pre-Series A round.

Kicked off in July 2020, the investment was led by Acumen Fund and supported by Upaya Social Ventures and others, a company statement said.

Others in the round include The Deepak Group, Impact India Investment Partners LLC, and Beyond Capital Fund.

Founded in 2016, Haqdarshak ensures citizens get access to government and private welfare schemes and services. This is done through a mobile and web SaaS platform for corporate partners complemented by a training platform used by community women entrepreneurs.

Seed fund early-stage investor We Founder Circle has led a Rs 1.5 crore ($200,000) pre-seed round in Geekster.

Global early stage fundraising platform Ah! Ventures also participated in the round.

Founded in October 2020, Geekster is an integrated platform where students get trained and pay only after getting a job while employers are able to access talent through data-driven matching algorithms.

Geekster plans to utilise the funds for launching skill development programmes among other things.