Matchmaking app for the differently abled Inclov has raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A funding round from a clutch of investors, a top company executive told VCCircle.
The investors who participated in this round include Rajan Anandan, managing director and India head, Google; Jamil Khatri and Ravi Iyer, angel investors; Debjani Ghosh, former MD of Intel South Asia; and existing investor Raghav Bahl, founder of Network 18 and Quintillion Media.
The company had previously raised Rs 1 crore (around $149,000) in a seed round of funding from Sarbvir Singh, former MD of Capital 18, and media entrepreneur Raghav Bahl. Intellecap Impact Investment Network too participated in the round.
Inclov Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs Inclov, was founded in 2014 by Kalyani Khona as a matchmaking agency for disabled people under the banner Wanted Umbrella and later launched Inclov in January 2016. Shankar Srinivasan joined the firm as a co-founder in 2015.
Khona is a graduate of HR College of Commerce, Mumbai, and is a recipient of the Rajeev Circle Fellowship, launched by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Asha Jadeja Motwani to enable Indian entrepreneurs to connect with mentors and seed investors in Silicon Valley in the US. Srinivasan is a graduate of Jai Hind College, Mumbai, and has previously worked with publishing firm Pearson India.
“Apart from penetrating deeper into the Indian market, the next landmark for the app is to go global. We are solving a global issue and do not want to be bound by locations. The reaction of the Indian market has been a tremendous learning experience for us before we take our app to the international market. The funds raised will be primarily utilised towards product development and geographical expansions in the coming years,†Khona said.
The Inclov mobile app, with talkback and colour change features, allows users to find their preferred matches through algorithms based on their medical information, level of independence and cure availability.
Besides the matchmaking app, Inclov has also launched Social Spaces, a unique offline platform, wherein the app users and others from the community can meet others in-person at accessible venues across the country.
Early this year, several dating apps were in the news. In March, Matchbox was selected by social media giant Facebook for its early-stage mentorship programme FbStart.
In February, dating app Vee, backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, pivoted its model for the second time to become an e-commerce enabler for small and medium enterprises.
In the same month, DoubleYou Technologies Pvt Ltd, the Gurgaon-based company behind dating app Woo, acquired Los Angeles-based Dus, for an undisclosed sum.