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Kanpur-based Hindi social networking portal, ShabdaNagari, has raised an undisclosed amount of bridge funding from ah! Ventures.
Through ah! Ventures the startup is backed by key investors like Yogesh Chaudhary from Jaipur Rugs, Anirudh Damani from Artha Energy Project, Abhimanyu Singh from TaskUs & others.
With internet usage on a continuous rise in tier II cities and villages of India, consumption of vernacular content shall inevitably be on the rise. ShabdaNagari is ready to be the forerunner in catering to this market and is in the process of making a few branding revamps to connect with the audience in a better and a simpler way.
ShabdaNagari started with a unique proposition to offer social media platforms catering to the Hindi speaking audience. The startup was started in 2015 by Amitesh Misra, Nikhil Tiwari, Kalpnesh Gupta, Gopal Sutwala, and Amaresh Chandra Misra.
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.
Amitesh Misra, co–founder of ShabdaNagari said, “ShabdaNagari is the first platform on internet that offers social media services in Hindi. Competition in this space is scarce and still catching up. ShabdaNagari has a number of benefits on ease of access and usability. Availability of 5 different input options for typing Hindi on the platform is the one of the biggest advantages on ShabdaNagari over others. With more than 80% of the traffic coming from India and around 10% coming from USA, UAE and Canada, this platform is seeing a surge in the number of users on the domestic as well as on the international front.”
With data suggesting over 66 crore Hindi speaking individuals in India, of which merely 5% – 10% being comfortable in communicating in English, the vernacular market reflects a huge need for such ventures.
ShabdaNagari claims that it has witnessed around 2 lakh unique hits and 8 lakh page views on the platform. It aims to utilise the newly raised capital for its product development, marketing and promotional activities.
Prior to this, the startup had raised about $200K in an angel round of funding from Kanpur Angels and a cluster of other investors, in January this year.
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