Frnd, operated by Cold Brew Tech Pvt. Ltd, a Bengaluru-based social networking platform, has raised $6.5 million in its Series A funding round, led by South Korean gaming company Krafton Inc, the company said in a statement on Monday.
The company’s existing investors India Quotient and Elevation Capital also participated in the funding round, the company said.
Frnd was founded in 2018 by three IIT Kanpur alumni -- Bhanu Pratap Singh Tanwar, Hardik Bansal and Harshvardhan Chhangani. The platform allows users to connect with each other through live-streaming formats like Frnd dating and various audio games, the company said.
Users can connect through audio in a pseudo-anonymous manner and start conversations through matchmaker-led games and chat rooms on its platform, the company said. The Frnd application is currently available on Google Play Store, and on an average, the company claims that a user spends approximately 25 minutes a day on the application.
“There is a huge untapped opportunity in the Indian romance market, where youngsters connect and interact with the opposite gender over the internet. We have been working towards providing a safer platform to the Indian youth, especially girls. The security features and state-of-the-art algorithms make Frnd just the right app for these next billion users to have a unique experience in a controlled way,” said Tanwar, Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, Frnd.
In 2019, Frnd had raised Rs 14 crore from SAIF Partners and India Quotient, VCCircle had reported. SAIF Partners had invested a little over Rs 11 crore while India Quotient pooled in the remaining amount.
Frnd’s current fundraising round comes just days after another social networking platform Moholla Tech, the parent company of Moj and ShareChat, raised $266 million (around Rs 1,995 crore) in its Series G funding round led by Alkeon Capital at a valuation of $3.7 billion. India Quotient also participated in the funding round along with Temasek Holdings, Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), Harbourvest and India Quotient.
The company is further looking to raise over $500 million as a part of its ongoing Series G round, which will propel the valuation of the company to over $5 billion, VCCircle/Mint had reported last week.
