[Funding alert] New Delhi startup GIFkaro raises $250,000 in angel funding for its product portfolio expansion

GIFkaro, a New Delhi-based GIF content startup, has announced that it has raised $250K from angel investors including Pranay Gupta (ex Snapchat and current Google employee), and Dr Ekika Singh, a top gynaecologist and infertility specialist, among others.

Launched in June 2017 by Arpit Kumar, Puneet Kalra and Dinesh Kumar, GIFkaro allows users to create, watch, and download funny GIFs. It provides an editing tool through its app to create a short GIF in multiple languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, and English. Users can also download any GIF available on the platform for free to share it on Facebook, and WhatsApp. The app is currently available for Android users, having more than 40,000 downloads so far.

GIFkaro plans to utilise the angel round of funding for its product portfolio expansion. It has recently introduced a new app named ‘Invitekaro’ for creating customised GIF wedding invitations.

Also read: Why Hyderabad-based GIFSKEY is focusing on the Indian GIF market

The startup said due to its 'custom animation engine', it takes less than 43 seconds for its app to create a design preview for the user. It combines multiple layers of animations into one, in real time, to come up with the perfect personalised GIF card. User can make these cards highly personalised by adding their own videos to these invitations.

The app also provides designers a "gig" opportunity to submit and monetise their designs on InviteKaro.

Speaking on how his company is trying to simplify Indian weddings, Arpit Kumar, Founder, InviteKaro said,

“Invitekaro removes the hassle of going out, picking a card, finding a nearby courier and mailing the wedding cards. It allows you better services from the spacious comfort of your home, where you can relax, pick a design that best represents who you are, how you would want the wedding to be like, add your own videos to it, and that’s that. Go to the social media of your choice and start shooting invites. Paper cards might continue to survive but digital is the present, and it is important to think beyond.”

In the past 18 months, the company has completed more than a billion impressions through its GIFkaro APIs on its partners (Microsoft, Dailyhunt, Shareit, Airtel, and others) channels.

In Feb 2019, Hyderabad-based local language GIF content startup GIFSKEY had also secured $1 million in a seed round led by Kstart, the seed fund of Kalaari Capital. The funding round also had participation from its existing investor Whiteboard Capital along with WEH Ventures, AngelList, and Touchstone. The company claimed to have an average of 100 million impressions a month currently and partnerships with 30 apps, including Dailyhunt, Xploree keyboard, and APUS.

In India, the market for GIFs is said to be one billion impressions a month with 300 million people across the world sharing nearly two billion GIFs every day.

Also Read: Giphy launches storytelling format with curated GIFs