Cleantech Hybrid-Mobility Startup Pi Beam Labs Raises Funding from Eagle10, Bluehill Capital

Chennai-based Pi Beam Labs, a cleantech automotive startup that makes electric utility vehicles for the micro-mobility market, has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-Series A funding from Eagle10 Ventures, Bluehill Capital, and other high net-worth individuals.

The startup will deploy the funds into expanding its core team, launch new product development initiatives, and ramp up its sales efforts.

Incubated at IIT-Madras' Incubation Cell, Pi Beam Labs designs, develops and sell future mobility hybrid vehicles (Solar +Electric+Pedal Assist).

Visakh Sasikumar, founder and CEO, Pi beam said the startup will be soon moving to a new 7,000 square feet facility in OMR from its current 2,000+ square feet assembly unit in Guindy, in line with the above goals.

Founded in 2013 by Visakh Sasikumar, Pi Beam offers pedal-assisted, solar and electric trikes (bike with three wheels) for logistics and passenger movements. The startup had launched in commercial operation in last year and since then has sold close to 160 trikes, which comes in three variants -- Mannual Paddling , Electric and Solar.



In addition, the startup is also working on products like e-rickshaws, electric carts, and others. Currently, Pi Beam works with public sector undertakings on last-mile delivery of gas cylinders and with municipal corporations as a use case for garbage collections.

The startup has even sold vehicles to Tata Trusts that using it for garbage collection and also to French multinational tyre maker Michelin for use in its plant near Chennai, where the vehicles are being used to move materials inside the factory.



Speaking on the funding, Vikas Sasikumar, co-founder and CEO, said to Times of India, "We are looking to capitalize on new government initiatives including FAME,” he added. The company is also in talks with third party logistics companies to develop solutions to cater to the growing demand for last mile connectivity in e-commerce, and also hopes to engage with ride hailing companies on their sustainability initiatives.

The solar panels for solar trikes are sourced from Cygni Energy, an another startup incubated in IIT Madras.

Speaking on the investment, Pramod D’Souza, co-founder, Eagle10 Ventures, said, "Pi Beam offers unique and utility focused electric vehicle products for last mile delivery and commute. Given the opportunity and timing of this product in today’s market needs, we are super excited to join hands in their journey."

Source - Times of India, Business Line

Pune-based Workflow Automation Startup Zestl Raises Funding in Pre-Series-A

Pune-headquartered workflow automation startup Zestl Software has raised an undisclosed sum in a pre-series A funding round from investors including Lead Angels, Eagle10 Ventures and Contrarian Vriddhi Fund.

The round also received contribution from other investors such as Gemba Capital, Genesis IT Innovations, Omphalos Ventures, former E&Y India national director Sunil Chandiramani and former Rothschild India managing director Sanjay Bhandarkar.

The startup plans to use the latest funding to expand its sales and marketing teams and continue to enhance the product. It also plans a full launch in the United States in the next six months.

Founded in 2015, by a Stanford alumnus Hardik Gandhi, Zestl has its flagship workflow platform, Zvolv, which is artificial intelligence (AI) driven and helps enterprises transform their operations by building intelligent, collaborative and built for mobile enterprise applications.

Hardik had earlier worked with Apple and Texas Instruments in the Bay Area.

The startup claims that Zvolv has garnered more than 25 clients including leading global quick service restaurant chains such as Domino’s Pizza, India’s largest retailers and fast-moving consumer goods makers, Future Group and other services and manufacturing companies. Zvolv automates and adds structure to chaotic people or data-centric collaboration processes, helps drive organisational efficiency and speeds up time to market.

“Existing SaaS (software as a service) collaboration solutions fail to automate enterprise processes end to end. The gaps end up killing user adoption and as a result RoI (return on investment). Zvolv gives users applications that are highly customized to specific business processes” said Prashant Pansare, co-founder, Eagle10 Ventures.

Source - Economic Times

Travel eCommerce Firm, Travelspice, Raises First Round from Eagle10 Ventures

Travelspice, India's only travel e-commerce platform where customer decides price she wants to pay for a hotel room, today closed early stage funding from Eagle10 Ventures.

Travelspice works with 3 star to 5 star hotels in more than 212+ cities across India and 6 cities outside India, helping them to reduce the loss of their revenues while at the same time giving travellers the best hotel deals.

Pramod Dsouza, co-founder of Eagle10 Ventures said, "The travel market in India is set to grow exponentially and we feel Travelspice through their opaque platform has the potential to capture a good chunk of this market. At Eagle10 Ventures, our focus is to invest in startups having 10x growth potential and Travelspice is a perfect example of that. Their business model is a win-win model for both end-customers who are looking at quality hotels at lower than market rates, and for hotels which are looking at increasing their occupancy constantly. Travelspice team lead by Ramu has delivered strong results over past 4-5 quarters validating their model. The team is very lean and very innovative when it comes to feature delivery."

All one needs to do is, open its app, pick the city, decide the price she wants to pay for a particular area, star rating, pay upfront and get confirmation in one of the listed 5 star to 3 star hotels in that star category and area in less than 3 hours. All hotels on Travelspice platform have a quality rating of greater than 3.5 on TripAdvisor.

"The double low price guarantee that comes with all hotel deals on Travelspice platform assures the best value to customers. So if a customer can find the same hotel accommodation anywhere else at lesser price, he or she can get double the price difference back as refund," said co-founder of Travelspice, Ramu Kallepalli. A serial entrepreneur, Kallepalli has founded 2 other startups based in Chicago and Hyderabad, before successfully exiting them to start Travelspice.

The startup mainly targets brand agnostic and value conscious consumers and provides them with guaranteed discounts on their hotel bookings. Hotels benefit as they can fill their perishable room inventories with fully paid and non-refundable customers on Travelspice platform without tarnishing their brand and without cannibalising their existing sales channels. This also allows them to white label their perishable inventory.