[Funding alert] Celebrity-fan engagement startup Gonuts raises Rs 3.5 Cr in seed round

Mumbai-based influential celebrity commerce platform GoNuts  has raised Rs 3.5 crore in seed funding led by marquee investors Sweta Rau and Archana Priyadarshini. 

9Unicorns, AngelList, Lets Venture, Pankaj Chaddah (Co-founder, Mindhouse and Zomato), Ramakant Sharma (Co-founder, Livspace), IIM Indore Alumni Fund, Harshal Morde from Morde Foods Pvt Ltd, and other marquee angels and founders also participated in this round.

“We feel that investments in the right team, technology, and other levers of growth is very important and will be our immediate priority. We aim to on-board 5,000+ of the most influential and inspirational celebrities by the next financial year and be the unicorn out of India in this category for the rest of the world,” said Vinamra Pandiya, Founder, Gonuts.

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Founded by serial entrepreneurs Vinamra Pandiya and Mayank Gupta, along with media and entertainment veteran Joji George in March 2020, Gonuts aims to bridge the gap between celebrities and their millions of fans, and democratise talent to the Indian and expatriate Indian diaspora.

“Experiences are so much more valuable than anything else. Gonuts is making it easy for fans and influencers/celebrities to connect in a deeper way through personalised videos, to begin with,” added Sweta Rau, angel and venture investor, White Ventures.

Gonuts claims to have a portfolio of over 700 of the leading celebrities, most of them exclusive on Gonuts, across categories like films, television, sports, and music, amongst others available on its platform. This gives users a diverse range of celebrities to choose from to convey personalized messages to their loved ones, the startup said.

According to Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, MD and Co-founder, 9Unicorns, “Indians are quite passionate about the celebrities that they follow. The team at GoNuts is creating a disruption in this field by delivering curated celebrity experiences. We are confident in its potential to achieve rapid scale.”