[Funding alert] Homegrown IoT startup Kazam raises Rs 7 Cr in seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures

Bengaluru-based IoT based charging station, Kazam, has raised Rs 7 crore in a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures, one of India’s largest angel investment platforms in India.

According to a press statement, the funds raised will be used for product development, ramping up sales, operations and marketing, as Kazam continues to provide the most affordable and smart electric vehicle charging stations made in India, and has set up over 30 charging stations in five states – Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi/NCR, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

Founded in 2020 by Akshay Shekhar and Vaibhav Tyagi, Kazam was built with the mission to make electric mobility accessible to all.

Vinay Bansal, Founder and CEO, Inflection Point Ventures stated, “In the last five years, the Government of India has announced multiple beneficial initiatives to increase the sales of EV vehicles. Many startups in electric mobility are scaling well and we have invested in quite a few. Thus, Kazam fits in organically, as we believe with more electric mobility startups getting launched and scaled, the infrastructure and discovery need (specially charging the vehicles) will be critical in the overall success of this sector. Kazam’s strong founding team has in-depth understanding of technology and physical infrastructure needed to help the sector grow faster and this encouraged us to invest in the Company.”

Kazam has also built an open architecture to help other charging hardware manufacturers to use their protocols and APIs. Businesses can easily connect with the APIs to start their EV journeys, the company stated.

Akshay Shekhar, Co-Founder, Kazam said,

“Electric Vehicles, especially 2W and 3W are growing at a rapid pace and Kazam has a solution for all the EV charging needs for fleet operators, home charging and public charging. We not only provide hardware but the software needed to manage and operate on a daily basis.

Our partnership with one of the leading EV fleet operators has already taken a good shape where we are seeing very high transaction rates on our station. We expect to put 10,000 charging station in 2021-22 and build a robust team to support it. Even with the 2nd wave of Covid hitting our way, IPV and our other investors have stayed resilient and continue to believe in our vision to make electric mobility accessible to all.”

Further adding Vaibhav Tyagi, Co-Founder, Kazam mentioned, “In the consumer segment, customers do want their hands on EVs but the lack of infrastructure makes them hesitant. Kazam’s affordable charging stations and its approach to create micro-entrepreneurs who can host these smart charge-points to earn income, will create a network of charge-points across the country.”