Mobile Ad Platform PayTunes Raises Funding From CIO Angel Network

Delhi-based mobile advertisement platform, PayTunes, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from CIO Angel Network (CAN). The round was led by Sanjay Mehta and Anoop Mathur along with other members from CAN.

The startup plans to use the funds for user acquisition, marketing and for improving the product features.

Founded this year by Divya Pratap Singh, Rakesh Sehgal and Gaurav Tiwari, PayTunes, provides a unique and innovative way to reach mobile consumers with audio jingles. PayTunes app essentially replaces the ringtones of a user’s mobile with ad-jingles from brands and in return the user is rewarded with points on every incoming call. Besides, users can later redeem their collected rewards through free recharges and bill payments.

In simple terms, PayTunes focuses on targeted ad-delivery for brands giving them a greater control on their audience as well as exposure.

Launched just 14 days ago, the startup has garnered over 10,000 users and is targeting to reach a user base of 100K consumers by the end of 2015. The company is also in talks with some big brands for internal branding solutions such as using branding tunes as cellphone ringtones of their entire field staff networks.

Divya Pratap Singh, co-founder and CEO at PayTunes, said, “With PayTunes, we are trying to create a unique way to reach these users via audio ad-jingles, where brands can target their campaigns in cost-effective way by using PayTunes platforms capability of delivering dynamic content to its users based on demographics, location and user interests.”

As per a recent e-marketer report, digital advertising spend in India is $0.94 Bn out of which Mobile Advertising spend is $0.17 Bn (18% of digital advertising expenditure). By 2019 the digital ad spend is expected to grow to $2.17 Bn, out of which mobile is expected to contribute $1.23 Bn.

Talking about the opportunity, Gaurav said, “With us, a man’s only youth focused brand can advertise only to males in the age group of 18-25, residing in Delhi and Mumbai with their ads being played exactly 2 times a day per user if they wish. This is the degree of narrowcast we can provide to our users and we are also working on making it even more deep by integrating in the user interests as well. ”

Although, the market has different apps that incentivize user to watch ads or do certain actions, the founders believe that their product differs widely from them.

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