Twitter Cofounder Biz Stone to Invest in Kerala-Based Startup Sieve

Twitter cofounder Christopher Issac ‘Biz’ Stone will invest in Kochi-based startup, Sieve, according to an announcement made over a video-conference at the second edition of Kerala Startup Mission’s event, Huddle 2019, on Friday. The funding amount remains undisclosed, though it is being considered as a major push to the thriving startup ecosystem in the state.

This comes at a time when the Kerala government is pitching the state as the ideal destination for startups and technology giants to set the base for business ventures in India, the Middle East and South-East Asia.

Sieve, a startup founded by Sanjay Nediyara, a hearing-impaired entrepreneur, is a platform for freelancers and agencies that provide the infrastructure from websites and digital signatures to invoicing and payment management. Nediyara, who was selected as one of the Forbes fellows in 2018, has already taken the company to the US market and will soon be expanding to Europe.

“I have used the product of Sieve as a freelancer. As an angel, I consider the person first and the product second. I find Sanjay as a dedicated, empathetic and extremely hardworking individual,” said Stone over the video-conference, according to media reports.

Seive is a platform for freelancers and agencies, that provides infrastructure in the form of websites, digital signatures, invoicing and payment management. Currently serving in the US, Sieve will soon expand its services to the European market.

Friends of Oorjja, which empowers the differently-abled community and Otis Elevators are Sieve’s other investors. The investment made by the social media giant is considered first of its kind investments made in Kerala. “Our larger vision is to build truly Internet companies in the cloud where people can form companies and work from anywhere in the world,” Nediyara said.

This is not the first time when Biz Stone had made an investment in an Indian company. In April last year, the Americal entrepreneur backed Delhi-based healthtech startup, Visit, which works to democratise healthcare by shrinking the shortage of doctors using artificial intelligence (AI). In August this year regional language social media platform, ShareChat, raised $100 Mn Series D funding led by twitter

At the event social media major Facebook also announced that it was gearing up to making investments in technology startups in India. “We are willing to spend our time, and energy to tap the massive depth of engineering talent in the country,” Vice President and Managing Director of Facebook India Ajit Mohan, said.