[Update] Koo Founder Mayank Bidawatka Rolls Out New Venture To Ace Consumer Tech

Update | September 18, 13:30 PM

Koo founder Mayank Bidawatka has reportedly bagged $250,000 (around INR 2 Cr) in a fresh funding round from the cofounders of redBus, Ola, InMobi and Myntra, along with Flipkart’s former CTO among others, for his new venture Billion Hearts Software Technologies.

As per ET, the round saw participation from 13 investors, including three VC firms, consumer tech entrepreneurs and corporate executives.

Bidawatka told ET that the company will be rolling out the beta version of the product between December and January next year for select users.

The product’s market size will be equivalent to the smartphone users of the world, he added.

Original Story | September 17, 19:39 PM

Months after bringing down the curtain on its microblogging platform Koo as prolonged acquisition talks fell through, its founder Mayank Bidawatka has announced launch of a new venture, Billion Hearts Software Technologies, to build consumer products for global users.

Taking to Linkedin, Bidawatka said, “Billion Hearts as a name represents the dreams of many. And hopefully the usage of billions of users around the world for whom this startup will build beautiful digital products.”

Currently, the new venture is operating in stealth mode and is slated for roll out in a few months.

Just a few days back, Bidawatka said in a post that the new venture has already secured angel funding from several founder friends in the marquee consumer tech space. He was also “busy talking to some known VCs for seed funding.”

This comes after Bidawatka hinted at a comeback earlier this year, with a new consumer tech venture “that’s been close” to him for years. At the time, he claimed to have a team of seven working behind the idea. 

Bidawatka started Koo in 2020, however the company couldn’t find success in the Indian market. In the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), the company reported a revenue of INR 14 lakh on losses of INR 197 Cr.

In July, the company shut down as acquisition talks with DailyHunt failed. 

Earlier this year, Inc42 reported that Koo stopped paying salaries to all its employees from April, citing financial constraints. The startup also slashed its headcount from 200 in 2022 to just 80 in 2024. 

The failing financials also resulted in the company not being able raise its Series C funding round. 

In a post on Linkedin, Bidawatka had said that Koo was hit by ‘prolonged funding winter.’ He further added that the startup was caught in a sour market and had to switch its focus from growth to generating revenue.

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