Web Browser Veera Secures $6 Mn From Ayon Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Others

Homegrown internet browser Veera has raised seed funding of $6 Mn (around INR 49 Cr) led by Ayon Capital.

The round also saw participation from 6th Man Ventures, Folius Ventures, The Operating Group, iSeed Ventures, Accomplice and Cypher Capital, with a host of angel investors, including, Aalap Mahadevia, Kabir Narang, Nikhil Mohta and Kevin Hu, among others.

Arjun Ghose, CEO of Veera, said, “This investment validates our vision to revolutionise the mobile internet experience in India. With this additional funding, we will focus on expanding our engineering team to accelerate product development, enhancing our infrastructure to ensure seamless user experience, and investing in marketing initiatives to reach even more users across India.” 

“We aim to continue innovating and delivering value to our users as we solidify Veera’s position as the preferred browser for Indian internet users,” he added.

Founded by Ghose, Rahul Pagdipati, Aditya Julka and Kanu Gupta, Veera has rapidly gained traction in the Indian market, focusing on a better browsing experience and rewards based on engagement.

According to market insights firm Similarweb, Google’s Android-native Chrome is the world’s most popular mobile-based web browser, with more than 58% market share. Chrome is followed by Apple’s Safari, Samsung Internet Browser and Opera, with 35.5%, 4% and 1.1% market shares, respectively. Chrome’s dominance extends to the Indian market, where, as of August 2023, it is used by 89% of all mobile devices. 

Meanwhile, in September 2023, the team at Veera launched its homegrown mobile web browser which has kicked up quite a stir. Veera’s browser is the latest attempt by an Indian company to introduce an indigenous internet browsing experience, a space where many failed in the face of Google’s dominance.

Veera is built on top of Chromium, Google’s free and open-source software (FOSS) web browser project. Chromium is also the base code for Google Chrome and other popular browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Opera and Brave.

However,  Veera distinguishes itself by providing a clean, ad-free browsing experience, addressing one of the notable shortcomings of browsers such as Google Chrome.

Veera claimed to have crossed 100,000 users soon after launch, underscoring the growing demand for its innovative browsing app. The company recently introduced an engagement-driven rewards program on the Veera platform. This program is crafted to recognise and incentivise user loyalty and engagement through gamification.

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