Exclusive: Tiger Global Backed Koo Gets $10 Mn From Over 20 Investors

Indigenous social media platform Koo has raised over $10 Mn (INR 79 Cr) in two tranches from more than a dozen investors including Capier Venture Partner, Ravi Modi Family Trust, Ashneer Grover among others. 

In the first tranche that took place in January, the startup allotted 3,389 Series B2 CCPS to seven investors for INR 28 Cr. The lists of investors included Bharatpe’s Ashneer Grover, FBC Venture Partners, Yulubike’s Hemant Gupta, Adventz Finance Private Limited. Back then Koo had allocated 3,389 Series B2 CCPS. 

In the second tranche, the startup had bagged INR 51 Cr from over 16 investors. In an extraordinary general meeting held on February 23, the startup passed a resolution to allot 6,142 Series B2 CCPS to a total of 16 investors. This seems to be the kickstart of Koo’s Series C round of funding.

Founded in March 2020 by Vokal cofounders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, the Koo claims to be a better social media microblogging site with limited restrictions. The platform has been advertised to be India’s social media platform. 

The platform became an instant favorite among union ministers, Bollywood celebrities, and renowned journalists when the central government lambasted Twitter over Republic Day violence last year. 

The altercation between the Indian government and Twitter which continued for a few months longer over the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rule, further propelled more users to join Koo.

Koo, which has over 15 Mn users, had previously raised $30 Mn in its Series B round led by Tiger Global. The round which was announced in July last year also saw participation from Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, Dream Incubator, IIFL, and Mirae Assets. 

Koo also counts investors such as Naval Ravikant, an early investor in Twitter and Clubhouse, and Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO at Coinbase and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. 

Prior to that, Koo had raised $4.1 Mn in its Series A round led by 3one4 Capital in participation of Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and others.  

Koo’s parent entity in FY21 had spent INR 24.7 Cr to earn INR 7.7 lakh. Koo and Vokal’s parent Bombinate Technologies posted a loss of INR 35 Cr in FY21. It’s expenses shot up by 75% to INR 24.7 Cr in FY21 from INR 14.1 Cr it shelled in FY20

Among indigenious social media platforms, Koo competes against unicorn social media platform ShareChat. The Bengaluru-based platform has recently announced the merger of Times Internets’ MX TakaTaka with short video platform Moj to reach more users. 

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Update | 26th Feb, 2:20 PM

The earlier version of the story had incorrect spelling for Capier, the same has been updated.