[Funding roundup] Chargeup, RetainIQ, Adicube, Heyy, Com Olho raise early-stage capital

Chargeup raises $2.5 million from Capital A and Anicut Capital

Chargeup, a battery swapping network, raised $2.5 million in pre-series A round from Capital A and Anicut Capital. The round also saw participation from Hindi film actors Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor, and Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, co-founders of boAt Lifestyle.

The startup will use the funds to expand its network in new cities and to build bigger capacities.

Founded in 2019 by Varun Goenka and Ankur Madan– Charge-up provides a battery swapping network for electric two and three-wheeler vehicles. The firm currently has 100 swapping stations, from two when it initially started. Chargeup also claims to have 800 drivers on their platform.

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RetainIQ raises $2.3 million in seed round

Ecommerce marketing company RetainIQ has raised $2.3 million led by venture capital firm Accel Partners.

The round also saw participation from VC firm Hauz Khas Ventures, London-based private equity firm Creator Collective Capital, Unicommerce founders Ankit Pruthi, Karun Singla, and Vibhu Garg, Upgrad co-founder Mayank Kumar, Ally.io founder Vetri Vellore, Brightchamps founder Ravi Bhushan Kumar, and Gromo founder Ankit Khandelwal, among others.

Founded in June 2021 by serial entrepreneurs Sitakanta Ray, Arpit Gupta, and Sulakshan Kumar, RetainIQ is a software platform that enables ecommerce stores and brands globally to convert and retain their customers by leveraging communication automation on Email, Whatsapp, SMS, Push, and On-site.

“The global retail industry is currently experiencing a generational shift. The future always lay in e-commerce, and the pandemic only accelerated this shift. Shopify has offered online retailers a safe space to grow, and in the process has become a huge entity – worth over USD 100 billion and harbouring multiple unicorns within its own ecosystem,” said Arpit Gupta, co-founder of RetainIQ.

RetainIQ will use the raised capital to rapidly scale its operations, accelerate product development, and expand its core teams across engineering, product, sales, marketing and operations.

Adicube raises Rs 12 crore in pre-seed round from Pitcherlabs Ventures, others

Adicube, an influencer marketing platform, raised Rs 12 crore (approx $1.6 million) in a pre-seed round led by Pitcherlabs Ventures.

The round also saw participation from Edukemy’s founder Chandrahas Panigrahi, Ashish Padiyar, and Brijesh Damodaran, founders of Auxano Capital, among other angel investors.

The firm will use the funds to “double down” on the number of influencers and brands on the platform.

Run by Creatzo Technologies, Adicube was founded in May 2021 by Sreetam Panda. The firm claims to provide seamless meeting of influencers with brands and vice versa. Adicube currently works with over 5,000 influencers and brands including fintech player Fampay, equity broking platform Groww and Unacademy, an edtech firm.

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Mental health startup Heyy raises $555,000 from Wavemaker Partners

Heyy, a mental health care app, raised $555,000 in a pre-seed round from Wavemaker Partners. The firm will use the

Heyy, which operates in the preventive “emotional aid” space, claims to have an adoption rate of 100% and 40% in enterprise and consumer segments, respectively.

Founded in 2021 by Ankit Malhotra – the platform provides preventive measures so that users’ could get help before a mental health issue gets severe. Heyy claims to operate across five time zones and multiple nationalities.

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Com Olho raises Rs 1.8 crore in seed round from Inflection Point Venture, others

Com Olho, a cyber security firm, raised Rs 1.8 crore from Inflection Point Venture. The funds will be used for hiring in tech roles, improving the product and increasing product adoption in geographies including India, West Asian countries and nations in the Asia Pacific region.

Founded in 2019 by Abhinav Bangia, a former assistant manager at Mettl– Com Olho is a cloud-based machine learning-as-a-service platform, which uses artificial intelligence (AI), among other methods, to detect fraud and data manipulation.

“As digital marketing, product and performance marketing become the new age mantra for the companies, they are also dealing with ad fraud issues, return on media spends and efficacy delivered via each ad done,” Mitesh Shah, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures, said in a release shared by the company.

CertifyMe raises undisclosed seed round from Callapina Capital

CertifyMe raised an undisclosed seed round from Hurun India founder Anas Rahman Junaid’s Callapina Capital.

Vinod Jose, partner at Konglo Ventures also participated in the round. The firm will utilise the funds to develop the product.

“We started small during the pandemic and have grown to process more than 1,00,000 credentials and 5 million social media impressions in this short span. Today, the platform is used across the globe by 700+ enterprises in over 70 countries,” Ranjith Tharayil, Founder & CEO, CertifyMe, said in a release.