Cheerio AI, an Indian AI-driven customer engagement platform, has raised ₹8 crore in a seed round led by Artha Venture Fund II, underscoring rising investor interest in enterprise AI tools that enhance customer communication and marketing automation. The capital will be used to deepen AI capabilities, broaden product channels, and support domestic and international expansion.
Investors and use of funds
The seed round included participation from Hyderabad Angels, TiE Angels, LetsVenture, Invention Engine and several individual angel investors. Cheerio AI said the funds will be deployed to strengthen its multi‑modal AI stack, develop proprietary small‑model large language models (LLMs) specialised for advertising and marketing content, and expand product offerings beyond text messaging to voice and video channels.
Planned product investments also cover enterprise‑grade infrastructure and enhanced automation features to support large clients that require integrated communication workflows across marketing, sales and customer support.
Hiring and global growth
Cheerio AI intends to ramp up hiring over the next six months, recruiting across engineering, AI research, enterprise sales and customer success teams. These additions are aimed at accelerating feature development, scaling operations and supporting the company’s market entry strategies outside India.
Product positioning and traction
Founded by Nishant Das with co‑founders Avinash and Priam, Cheerio AI focuses on improving the relationship between customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV) through a unified engagement platform. The solution consolidates marketing, support and sales workflows, enabling enterprises to automate personalised campaigns and streamline customer interactions.
The platform supports multiple channels including WhatsApp, email, SMS, social messaging and in‑app communication, allowing organisations to centralise interactions and maintain automated customer journeys.
Cheerio AI says it serves more than 150 enterprise clients across six industries, claims to have contributed over ₹500 crore in incremental revenue to customers via retention automation, and reports roughly 450% year‑on‑year revenue growth over the past two years.
Market context
The funding round comes amid growing demand for specialised AI tools that deliver measurable business outcomes. Investors are increasingly backing startups that offer enterprise‑focused AI solutions for customer engagement, marketing efficiency and operational automation.
With fresh capital and an expanding customer base, Cheerio AI is positioning itself to compete in the global customer engagement technology market while continuing to scale its AI and product capabilities.
