Posted by Mumbai: Koo – an Indian microblogging app has raised $4.1 million in Series A funding round. Infosys veteran Mohandas Pai’s 3one4 Capital is the latest addition to the investors on board. Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures and Dream Incubator also participated in the round.
The funding will help in building app-capabilities that will further assist in solving uniquely Indian engineering challenges and marketing to increase app awareness.
The 10-month-old app has received appreciation from all quarters, having won the Aatmanirbhar App Challenge by the Indian government.
Koo was named Google PlayStore’s Best Daily Essential App for 2020. It got a special mention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address.
“Existing microblogging platforms have not been able to grow beyond the English-speaking population,” said Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-Founder and CEO, Koo.
“Koo enables free expression of thoughts and opinions for every Indian irrespective of the language preference. Koo will amplify the daily voices of India on an Indian platform,” added Radhakrishna.
“The Koo app is a very valuable and powerful platform in the Indian context. Social platforms focused on India need to be highly contextualised to the audience beyond languages. And must include community, moderation and content relevance,” said Anurag Ramdasan, Principal – 3one4 Capital.
“Both Aprameya and Mayank are proven entrepreneurs and have built large internet businesses in past. We are happy to partner with them to make this atmanirbhar vision become a reality and to build sustainable and socially relevant platforms,” added Ramdasan.
Koo is a microblogging app for opinions voiced in Indian languages. Aligning with Prime Minister Modi’s vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat, it creates a trusted local space for Indians to connect, comment and engage, making it a people-first platform.
The app facilitates active conversations as creators can express themselves and users can follow creators of their choice to create a customised feed.