A bunch of Indian A-list entrepreneurs, including Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and former Indian Cricketer Javagal Srinath, have bought out Chinese investors Shunwei Capital’s stake in the parent firm of Koo, India’s answer to Twitter.
BookMyShow Founder Ashish Hemrajani, Udaan co-founder Sujeet Kumar and Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamat were others who bought out Shunwei’s over 9 per cent stake in Bombinate Technologies Pvt Ltd. “Existing investors along with a bunch of individuals have bought out Shunwei Capital’s minority stake in Bombinate Technologies Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Vokal and Koo,” the company said in a statement. It, however, did not reveal the financial details of the deal. Koo, which caught public attention after the Indian government’s tussle with Twitter over the removal of inflammatory contents, has crossed over 4 million downloads with about a million active users.
Koo’s investors include Accel Partners, 3one4 Capital, Blume Ventures, and Kalaari Capital. Additionally, global venture capital firm, Shunwei, was also an investor in Bombinate Technologies, the parent of Koo. Shunwei Capital, which is led by a partnership team that includes people of Chinese origin, had invested in the earlier product of Bombinate, an app called Vokal.
Since Bombinate has pivoted its primary business and focused on Koo, Shunwei committed to exiting the company and the deal concluding now. Javagal Srinath, former Indian cricketer and fast bowler said, “I am very happy to be backing Koo – one of India’s most talked-about social media platforms. The fact that they are building a platform to bring the voices of Indian language audiences onto the internet is commendable and as an Indian, I extend my support to them wholeheartedly.” Aprameya Radhakrishna, CEO and Co-founder, Koo said, “As earlier stated, we had been in discussion with Shunwei Capital to enable a smooth exit after it invested in our company 2.5 years ago while we were raising funds for Vokal and have now fully exited the parent company Bombinate Technologies.”
Shunwei Capital had held a bit more than 9 per cent in Bombinate Technologies, the statement said. “It is important to note that Koo has been one of the first companies in India to be proactive in its actions of cleaning up its cap table and has doubled down on its commitment to build an Aatmanirbhar app for India and the world,” it said. Koo is available in several Indian languages including Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and Marathi.
It has so far raised around USD 4.1 million from investors including Infosys veteran Mohandas Pai’s 3one4 Capital, Kalaari Capital, and Blume Ventures.
