The Indian Angel Network (IAN) said on Tuesday it has invested in Wizikey Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which offers software-as-a-service for the public relations and social media sectors.
The funding was led by IAN investors Alok Mittal, co-founder and CEO at Indifi; Ambarish Raghuvanshi, former chief financial officer at Info Edge (India) Ltd; and Saumya Meattle, investor director at the IAN, the angel network said in a statement.
Others who participated in the funding round include Nasscom chairman Raman Roy and HCL co-founder Ajai Chowdhry.
Wizikey was founded by Aakriti Bhargava and Anshul Sushil last year. It will use the capital to develop its product offerings, enhancing its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities, and cover multiple vernacular languages, the statement said.
The startup helps businesses discover relevant journalists and send information to them. Wizikey's platform provides access to a list of 7,500 journalists across the country. It also enables businesses to maintain a record of all their announcements and monitor responses.
“Public relations is one of the most potent tools that can help businesses organically garner market credibility and increase consumer mindshare," said Bhargava, co-founder, Wizikey, "However, a majority of businesses are shying away from PR, for lack of a transparent and nifty platform. Wizikey was launched to address this exact market gap," she added.
India's public relations and social media industry is estimated to be valued at Rs 4,500 crore, the statement said.
The Wizikey founders also started advertising and public relations company Boring Brands. Bhargava, an alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce, has been in the public relations industry for over 15 years, handling communications for companies such as Naukri.com and Oyo.
Sushil, an alumnus of IIT, Varanasi, has been brand manager for HCL.
IAN's bets
The IAN is one of the most active angel networks in India. It has invested in more than 110 startups including Druva Software, Sapience Analytics, SP Robotics, Far Eye and Unboxd Ltd.
The angel network has also launched its own Rs 450 crore IAN Fund, which has raised the targeted corpus and is looking to make the official final close soon.
IAN's recent investments this year include cataloguing startup Flatpebble, local discovery and e-commerce platform Little Black Book and data analytics firm Clootrack.
Last year, it invested in waterless personal hygiene startup Clensta, fin-tech startup Propelld and farm-to-fork marketplace FarmersFZ.