[Funding alert] Social video app Public raises Rs 260 Cr from Lee Fixel's Addition, SIG Global, Tanglin Venture Partners

Homegrown location-based social network Public, which enables people in Tier I, II, and III cities to record and share happenings around them and provide real-time local updates, has secured funding of Rs 260 crore from venture capitalist Lee Fixel’s Addition, SIG Global, and Tanglin Venture Partners. 

It is worth noting the development marks the first investment in an Indian startup by Lee Fixel, which was launched late last year. After spending over a decade as the Head of Tiger Global’s private equity business, Lee Fixel had quit the firm in June last year. He is one of the most prominent tech investors in the Silicon Valley, and was instrumental in backing Flipkart and Ola.

Launched in December 2019 by news curator Inshorts, the video-led hyperlocal information is a fast growing app app which features information such as local updates and happenings to local commerce, jobs, classifieds and more in Indian languages. The app says it has about a thousand politicians who connect with their community through Public. These include prominent names such as Hema Malini, Kamal Nath, CP Joshi, Chandrabhan Singh, Bhupinder S Hooda, Deepender Singh Hooda, and Om Prakash Dhankar.

During COVID-19, the app says it has seen an uptake and growth of over 100 percent in downloads across towns and cities — with over three lakh downloads per day.

In a blogpost, the company said that it has always focused on and been known for achieving best-in-class user retention and engagement metrics.

The plan is to utilise the funding towards rapid scaling up of tech infrastructure, content offerings and employee base to further speed up the growth and continue improving on retention and engagement.

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“We are thrilled to have this support from Addition, SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners in our journey towards building the world’s largest location based social network,” said Azhar Iqubal, Founder and CEO, Public App. “With more than 50 million active users and over one million videos being created every month on the app, Public aims to connect the local communities of Bharat and become the one stop solution for all their local needs,” Iqubal added.

The app aims to provide users with a platform that lets them share and view important and interesting videos from across their city in a single place. The information will be diverse and relevant to the public — elections, sports matches, power cuts, water shortage, celebrity events, and more. The app relies on users to connect with each other in their local language and consume increased hyperlocal content.