Exclusive: Networking Platform Medial In Talks To Raise $5 Mn From OG Capital, Others

SUMMARY

The funding round will see participation from Medial’s pre-seed investor OG Capital and two major VC firms

Medial cofounder and CEO Niket Raj Dwivedi confirmed the development with Inc42 but didn’t disclose the name of the investors

Founded in 2023, Medial helps founders, operators, investors, and professionals connect and collaborate. The startup claims to offer a “high-signal” networking space focussed on community dynamics, rather than content overload

Bengaluru-based networking platform Medial is in advanced talks to raise $4 Mn to $5 Mn in its Series A round, multiple people aware of the development told Inc42.

The funding round will see participation from Medial’s pre-seed investor OG Capital and two major VC firms.

Medial cofounder and CEO Niket Raj Dwivedi confirmed the development with Inc42 but didn’t disclose the name of the investors.

Rajvardhan Mohite, cofounder and head of enterprise investments at OG Capital, also confirmed that the VC firm is doubling down on its investment in the startup.

Explaining his rationale for the investment, Mohite said that Medial’s engagement time has gone up 6X in the last 12 months, while users have grown by 10X.

Founded in 2023 by Dwivedi, Aishwarya Raj Pandey, Harsh Dwivedi, and Prateek Kaien, Medial helps founders, operators, investors, and professionals connect and collaborate. The startup claims to offer a “high-signal” networking space focussed on community dynamics, rather than content overload.

Earlier this year, the startup appeared on the TV show Shark Tank India’s fourth season and bagged funding from OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal. Following this, it launched a paid premium membership model.

Under the said model, Medial offers premium features like active VC tracker, grants list, accelerator and incubator list, along with premium content and job portal.

According to Mohite, the premium model is seeing strong traction. “Resubscription rates for Medial’s premium plans currently are in the 65-70% range – well within the global top-performers band of 60%, the likes of Bumble, Duolingo, Calm, and so on. At these rates and their organic premium conversion rates, we see profitability within the next 12 months,” he added.

Notably, the startup claims to have over 2.5 Lakh users on its platform and is targeting profitability by March 2026.

Medial last raised $500K from OG Capital in December last year.

The startup is yet another addition to the list of social networking platforms coming out of India. The likes of Grapevine and Hood have already raised substantial capital in the past.

While Hood has raised more than $3.2 Mn till now, Grapevine has secured a funding of about $2.6 Mn to date. However, Hood recently transitioned to a match-making platform, under the name Knot.Dating. This was the second rebranding exercise for Hood, which was founded as Zorro. Under the aegis of Zorro, the startup managed to raise $3.2 Mn in its seed funding round.

Amid rising digitisation and access to smartphones, social media startups are gaining traction in India. According to Statista, the sector’s total revenue in India is expected to reach a size of $1.54 Bn by 2029.