[Funding alert] Koo raises $30M Series B investment led by Tiger Global

Indian language micro-blogging platform Koo App has raised $30 million Series B funding led by Tiger Global. The other new investors are IIFL and Mirae Assets. The round also saw investment from existing investors - Kalaari Capital, 3one4 Capital, Accel Partners, Blume Ventures, and Dream Incubator.

The fresh round of funding will be utilised mainly to strengthen engineering, product and community efforts across all Indian languages at Koo. 

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Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-founder and CEO of Koo, said:

“We have aggressive plans to grow into one of the world’s largest social media platforms in the next few years. Every Indian is cheering for us to get there soon. “

The startup was founded in March 2020 by Aprameya Radhakrishna, the co-founder of TaxiForSure, and Mayank Bidawatka, who previously founded companies like TheMediaAnt and Goodbox. 

The platform currently is available in multiple Indian languages, people from across different regions in India can express themselves in their mother tongue.

The app has already got over six million downloads in a year of operations, with a community posting content every day. Some of the big names include film stars like Anupam Kher and Kangna Ranaut; politicians like Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, and Smriti Irani, and senior leader of Congress Kamal Nath, JDS supremo and former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, Supriya Sule of the NCP, Chandrashekhar Aazad of Bhim Army, Upendra Khushwaha from JDU, Rajendra pal Gautham from AAP; and sports celebrities including Saina Nehwal, Bhaichung Bhutia, Javagal Srinath, Mary Kom, and Deepak Hooda, amongst many others.

Billed as India's alternative to Twitter, the Koo app won second place in the Aatmanirbhar App Challenge announced by the Indian government last year. 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.