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Uttar Pradesh-based Hindi social networking portal, ShabdaNagari, has raised about $200K in an angel round of funding from Kanpur Angels and a cluster of other investors.
The raised capital will be used to expand genres on the website and upgrading user interface.
Started in 2015 by Amitesh Misra, Nikhil Tiwari, Kalpnesh Gupta, Gopal Sutwala and Amaresh Chandra Misra, Shabdanagari, is social network around Hindi content. It’s a place where users can create websites and connect with people. “With ShabdaNagari, we want to bring Hindi speakers online where they can connect with like-minded people and express their thoughts in their language. We have a goal of bridging the digital divide,” said Kalpnesh Gupta, co-founder of ShabdaNagari.
The website aims to create a new platform where local language users in India can easily communicate and share their thoughts on Internet. Users can post their articles, pictures, videos as well as questions using the tools provided on the website.
The startup already has over 20K registered users, 150 thousand unique visits and 6 lakh page visits. It has over 100 articles published everyday with a 25% repeat traffic.
“With an increasing smartphone penetration, there is a demand for new and original local language content on the Internet. Right now, many large companies are working towards ensuring that the next 100 Mn users on the internet should be able to engage in their local language. We believe ShabdaNagari is equipped to facilitate that with their vision to create a Hindi internet platform,” said Rakesh Suri, promoter, Kanpur Angels and an investor.
Kanpur Angels have set aside a corpus of INR 10 Cr. to provide angel investments to promising startups from the city. ShabdaNagari is its first investment.
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