[Funding alert] Koo raises $4.1M as part of Series A, Mohandas Pai’s 3one4 Capital invests

Indian microblogging app, Koo App, has raised $4.1 million as part of its Series A funding. Infosys veteran Mohandas Pai’s 3one4 Capital is the latest addition to the investors on board. The round also saw participation from Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, and Dream Incubator. The funding will be used to ramp up capabilities to solve uniquely Indian engineering challenges, and for marketing to increase awareness about the app, according to a press statement.

Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-founder and CEO, Koo, said in the statement - “Existing microblogging platforms have not been able to grow beyond the English-speaking population. Koo enables free expression of thoughts and opinions for every Indian irrespective of the language preference. Koo will amplify the daily voices of India on an Indian platform.”

Koo, a microblogging site for opinions voiced in Indian languages, was founded in March 2020. The app facilitates active conversations as creators can express themselves, and users can follow creators of their choice to create a customised feed.

Anurag Ramdasan, Principal, 3one4 Capital, said - “Koo is a very valuable and powerful platform in the Indian context. Social platforms focused on India need to be highly contextualised to the audience here beyond languages, and must include community, moderation and content relevance. Both Aprameya and Mayank are proven entrepreneurs, and have built large internet businesses before. We are happy to partner with them to make this atmanirbhar vision become a reality and to build sustainable and socially relevant platforms.”

Billed as India's alternative to Twitter, the Koo app won second place in the Aatmanirbhar App Challenge announced by the Indian government. It was also named Google PlayStore’s Best Daily Essential App for 2020, and got a special mention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address.