SynergyByte Media Pvt. Ltd, which operates short video platform Bolo Indya, has raised $400,000 (nearly Rs 3 crore at current exchange rates) as part of a new funding round.
This round in the Gurugram-based startup has been led by Inflection Point (IP) Ventures, which has been one of the country’s most active early-stage investors this year.
Existing backer Eagle10 Ventures also participated in this round, Bolo Indya said in a statement.
The development comes after the firm raised $300,000 from early-stage investment firm Eagle10 Ventures, India Accelerator and some high-net-worth individuals in August.
It also makes Bolo Indya the latest firm operating in the short video segment to raise capital this year. Indian companies in this segment have received a strong boost following the government’s ban on TikTok and other Chinese-owned platforms following a clash between the security forces of the two countries in June.
Other companies in this segment that have raised capital in recent months include Mitron, ShareChat-operated Moj, Trell and Chingari.
Bolo Indya was set up last year by Varun Saxena. The company says its unique proposition is ‘Bolo Meets’, a feature that allows content creators and influencers to leverage their fan following by allowing micropayments to facilitate one-to-one and one-to-many live video sessions.
The startup claims this feature is allowing some creators to earn up to Rs 70,000 per month, with more than 50,000 bookings having been conducted since it launched Bolo Meets.
It will use the capital raised in this round to enhance its personalisation and recommendation engine, as well as to expand Bolo Meets and hire talent across roles.
“Their [Bolo Indya’s] engagement-first approach and focus on high user retention clearly makes them stand apart from the clutter in short video space,” IP Ventures co-founder Mitesh Shah said.
IP Ventures
The platform was founded by senior finance professionals from consumer internet companies such as Myntra and BookMyShow. It has been actively making bets on startups since its launch in 2018 and has so far invested over Rs 100 crore across more than 40 startups.
In a VCCircle podcast in October, chief executive Vinay Bansal talked about the angel network's appetite for larger deals.
Last week, VCCircle was the first to report that IP Ventures had led a pre-Series A round in relocation platform HappyLocate. VM Ventures, an early-stage investor, also took part in the exercise.
IP Ventures has maintained a sector-agnostic approach. Some of its recent bets include online footwear brand Rapawalk, internet-of-things-based startup Eden Homes, e-sports content platform AFK Gaming, snack-focused cloud kitchen platform Samosa Party Foods and edtech startup Edvizo.
