Exclusive: Peak XV To Invest In Grapevine, A 6-Month-Old Anonymous App For Professionals

Bengauru-based anonymous social media app Grapevine is in talks to raise its maiden funding round from Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India).

The six-month-old social media platform will be raising around $3 Mn in its seed funding round, which will be led by Peak XV Partners, sources told Inc42. 

The talks are in final stages and an official announcement is likely soon, the sources said, adding that the funding round will also see participation from some angel investors. 

Grapevine and Peak XV Partners refused to comment on Inc42’s queries on the funding talks.

Started by first time founders Saumil Tripathi, Jainam Talsania, and Shreeyash Dharmadhikari, Grapevine is a social media platform for corporate and startup employees. It enables employees to discuss various issues, including salaries, hiring, layoffs, and work culture, anonymously. 

While the concept of an anonymous platform for office-related discussions is not new, Grapevine has gained popularity in the country within a short span of six months, especially among India’s growing startup community.

The platform has multiple “Communities” for different topics to allow its users to participate in discussions as per their choice. It was launched in January this year and currently claims to have over 30,000 users.

As per its LinkedIn page, the startup currently has 8-9 employees.

Grapevine’s app was initially launched on both iOS and Android stores. With a steady growth in users, the platform also launched a web version last week to allow users to post from their laptops. Currently, it allows users to post text without any-specific word limit, unlike Twitter. Users can also post images, links, and run a poll.

Globally, Grapevine competes with Blind, which has already mopped up over $60 Mn in funding. Meanwhile, in India, it locks horns with Hood (formerly known as Zorro). 

Hood, founded by Jasveer Singh, Abhishek Ashthana, and Deepak Kumar in 2021, defines itself as a pseudonymous social network. It raised $3.2 Mn in a seed round in December 2021 from startup founders, including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Ritesh Agarwal, Lalit Keshre, Jitendra Gupta, and other angel investors. The social media app also raised INR 1.2 Cr from Peyush Bansal and Aman Gupta during Shark Tank India Season 2. 

Grapevine is in talks to raise​​ capital at a time when many social media platforms have been laying off employees to cut costs amid the ongoing funding winter. Google-backed ShareChat, Koo, and VerSe Innovations (parent entity of DailyHunt and Josh) are among such Indian platforms which have laid off employees over the last few months. 

On Monday, Inc42 exclusively reported about short-video platform Chingari laying off around 20% of its workforce. 

Globally, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Meta, which runs Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, have also trimmed their workforce in recent times.

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