Gurugram-based Josh Talks Pvt. Ltd, which operates the regional content and upskilling platform Josh Talks Tuesday said it has raised $3.5 million (around Rs 27 crore) in a funding round led by Ankur Capital.
The startup plans to utilize the fresh capital to scale itself and become a preferred social learning platform in India. It also plans to experiment with new product lines catering to the aspirations of this user segment.
Other investors who participated in this funding round include Vijay Shekhar Sharma (founder and CEO of Paytm), Vaibhav Domkundwar (founder and CEO at Better Capital), Vineeta Singh (CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics), Ritesh Agarwal (founder and group CEO of OYO), and Ankur Warikoo (Ex-Nearbuy) among other investors.
Founded in 2015 by Supriya Paul and Shobhit Banga, Josh Talks creates exclusive content to help brands connect with users. The company operates one of the largest networks of non-entertainment channels on YouTube in India and is now building product lines to unlock its distribution.
“Over the last two years, we have doubled down on two things - growing our distribution across 10 languages and creating a product that monetizes this distribution network. We have been able to understand the aspirations of young India and have built one of the largest online communities, which is in turn directed towards our app, Josh Skills with 0 CAC. With the new capital, our goal is to expand our offerings, strengthen our executive team and take Josh to every household in India”, said Supriya Paul, CEO and Co-founder, Josh Talks.
According to the statement, the app Josh Skills has reported more than 3.2 million downloads since its launch and has over 200,000 paid subscribers from Tier II and III cities of India.
Earlier in 2020, Josh Talks raised $1.5 million (around Rs 11 crore) from the New York-based Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF).
Before Josh Talks, Ankur Capital led a $3 million pre-Series A round in edtech platform MyCaptain in January this year. In 2017, the venture capital company backed Skillveri, a virtual platform to skill and upgrade industrial workers for high-skilled labour, in its $1.1 million Series A round.