LoveHeart AI co-founder Himal Randeniya. Source: Skalata
It’s been a relatively quieter week for startup funding announcements, with two deals coming across the SmartCompany editorial desk.
Keep reading to learn more about an edtech startup with $2.3 million in new funding, and a space tech startup with $2 million at its disposal.
LoveHeart AI: $2.3 million
LoveHeart AI co-founder Himal Randeniya. Source: Skalata
Leading the funding round-up this week is early childhood education startup LoveHeart AI, which has raised $2.3 million in a seed funding round led by OIF Ventures and Skalata.
LoveHeart AI was founded in 2022 by Himal Randeniya, who has drawn on his experience as an educator and running early childhood centres to build a platform to ease the administrative burden on early childhood educators.
The startup’s goal is to “help educators spend less time on paperwork and more time with the children,” Randeniya told SmartCompany earlier this week.
It does this by automating documentation related to a child’s learning and development, saving educators valuable time.
The platform can process observations, photos, and voice memos provided by educators, and translate them into comprehensive reports and plans. As well as reducing the workload for educators, this also helps ensure documentation is accurate and aligns with regulatory standards.
“At a simple level, we take a teacher’s observations of a child in their development, we understand those observations and then we use that to help them understand the development that’s happening and also think about what to do next,” Randeniya said.
The platform includes two types of AI models, Coach Sue and Sentinel, and employs an opt-in voice memo feature rather than continuous listening for privacy reasons.
With more than 40,000 educators and early childhood centres already using the platform, LoveHeart AI plans to focus on the ANZ region over the next 18 months.
Metakosmos: $2 million
Kiriti Rambhatla and Renuka Rambhatla of Metakosmos. Source: LinkedIn/Metakosmos
Sydney-based startup Metakosmos has secured $2 million in pre-seed funding to help it continue developing its spacesuit technology, reports Startup Daily.
Founded by Kiriti Rambhatla and Renuka Rambhatla in 2020, Metakosmos has created the ‘Kosmosuit’, a multi-layered spacesuit with proprietary software that reportedly has multiple uses in extreme terrestrial conditions.
The startup, which employs a team of engineers, medical doctors and scientists, also wants to launch a number of spin-off applications in other industries.
The funding round was led by Saudi Arabian technology group Alzadhar Al-Sanai.
“We are thrilled to have the support of such esteemed investors who share our vision for the company, by enabling new markets for human space flight services,” said CEO and co-founder Kiriti Rambhatla, according to Startup Daily.
Metakosmos received a $250,000 grant from the Moon to Mars Supply Chain Capability program in March 2024 as part of NASA’s Artemis program for lunar exploration.
The company has also previously received a NSW government MVP grant and in 2023, it won the space category at the SXSW Sydney pitch competition.
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