Content marketing startup Yaap secures $5mn in funding from Rainmaker Ventures
YAAP, a super specialised startup in content discovery, creation and distribution, has secured a $5-million investment from Rainmaker Ventures. The company intends to use the funds primarily for team expansion and technology acquisitions.
Rainmaker Ventures, with presence in India, USA, Brazil and Singapore, is an early-stage startup fund of $50 million that was launched in December last year. Co-founder Atul Hegde will be the Chief Mentor and will join the Yaap board post this investment.
This is the second investment made by Rainmaker Ventures. The firm had earlier invested in Mumbai-based bus aggregator Limo.
Business model
Four-month-old Yaap helps its clients focus on the three digital content service lines of Design, Discovery and Distribution. The company helps in the discovery and creation of a company’s overall content, its design as well as its distribution. It takes care of the company’s entire content management process and generates content in bulk, which brings down the costs of the entire process.
The 10-member team works only with individual partners from across cities. The company currently has teams in Delhi and Mumbai but remotely serves customers pan India. Its clients include Startup India, ITC Hotels, Maharaja Whiteline among others.
Explaining its hierarchy model, Manan Kapur, Partner at Yaap, says the company does not have a CEO, and works based on a partner model. Digital media professionals Nikhil Bapat and Manan Kapur have joined in as Partners in Mumbai and Gurgaon respectively.
Manan adds, “The market for super specialised content is huge. Social media now needs more organised and innovative content, since the organic reach has now reduced. We render all three services of discovery, creation and distribution, which is rarely provided by a single entity, and thus we are witnessing massive traction.”
Future plans
The company is now focusing on its existing clients and its primary focus remains quality. The fledgling startup plans to expand its offerings and increase its current customer base of six by the year end.
Although it is yet to launch its website, Yaap is already serving enterprise clients and plans to target small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to help build their brand image as well.
With the current fund raise, the company plans to hire and build a 50-member team by the end of 2016. The company also plans to invest in acquiring platforms that help in automation, thus enhancing the efficiency and plans to expand in the Singapore and USA market, where they plan to open offices by early next year.
Market overview
Throwing light on the current market for digital content service, Manan says, “Traditional media agencies are still focusing on social media and its tools which has been dead long time ago. We are creating the difference here and trying to bring in a shift in the paradigm by creating innovative content.”
Although companies do understand the significance of content marketing and digital content, this market has not been explored much. The content market in USA is already a $40-billion industry but it still remains quite unstructured in India.
The few dominant players in the content market include Bengaluru-based Deucetech Solutions, which provides website design and its development, Devak Infomark, which helps clients in content management system, and Content Axis, which offers overall content marketing services.