Early-stage micro venture capital firm Artha Venture Fund on Wednesday said it has invested Rs 3.5 crore ($465,300) in a mobility platform for kids, Piggy Ride.
The investment is part of Piggy Ride's pre-Series A funding round, said Artha Venture in a statement.
The funding was led by existing investor JAFCO Investment Asia Pacific, a Tokyo-based venture capital firm, it added.
Piggy Ride, which is operated by Kidext Technologies Pvt. Ltd, was founded last year by Manish Tewari and Rohan Kaushal.
Tewari, a graduate of IIT-BHU Varanasi, had previously co-founded Koovs and Pokkt. Kaushal, a graduate of IIT-Delhi, has nine years of experience working with startups like Ola and Koovs.
The startup says it leverages technology and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) tools to provide mobility solutions for schools and children.
It currently serves kids from more than 50 academies, schools, day-cares, and coaching institutes.
Last year, Piggy Ride had said it raised Rs 7.5 crore in a funding round led by JAFCO Investment Asia Pacific.
A clutch of angel investors including InMobi Group founder and CEO Naveen Tewari also took part in the round then.
Artha Venture
Artha Venture Fund is backed by Singularity Holdings and the family office of former BSE director Ashok Kumar Damani.
The VC firm said it is Artha Venture's eight investment from its debut fund.
In recent interaction with VCCircle, Anirudh A Damani, managing partner, Artha Venture, said it is facing a delay in hitting the final close of its debut fund due to the coronavirus pandemic and now hopes to finish the exercise by the end of this year.
The VC firm had marked the second close of the fund at over Rs 100 crore last year. Its overall target is Rs 200 crore.
He also added that Artha Venture may dip into the fund’s greenshoe option to raise a larger amount.
The fund's other investments include food-tech startup Daalchini, online peer-to-peer lending platform LenDenClub, mini-cinema chain Jadooz and space-tech startup Agnikul.
