Short-video platform Roposo set to raise $5 mn from returning investor Tiger Global

Gurugram-based Roposo, a multilingual platform for creating and sharing short videos, is set to raise $5 million (Rs 34.7 crore) from returning investor Tiger Global Management.

According to filings with the ministry of corporate affairs, the board has passed a resolution approving the fundraise earlier this month.

By TechCircle estimates, the company will raise this fresh infusion at $40-$45 million valuation. This is significantly lower than the post-money valuation of Rs 478 crore — by TechCircle estimates — that Roposo had received when it had raised Series B funding of $5 million from Bertelsmann India back in April 2016.

In an e-mailed statement, Mayank Bhangadia, co-founder and CEO of the venture, said that the latest infusion is part of a new fundraising exercise, for which the company has kickstarted dicsussions. However, he did not elaborate further.

It could not be ascertained whether this is part of a larger funding round as the board has okayed the issue of a new class of shares to Tiger Global.

The development comes five months after the firm had raised $10 million in December last year from Tiger Global and Bertelsmann India.

In late November, the four-year-old startup raised Rs 12 crore ($1.7 million) in a fresh round of funding from Bertelsmann India.

Prior to this, it secured $5 million from Bertelsmann India back in April 2016 as part of the second leg of its Series B round. In August 2015, Tiger Global had invested $15 million in the first leg of the Series B round. The US-based investment firm had also led Roposo’s $5 million Series A round in March 2015.

Roposo

Founded in July 2014 by Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi graduates Bhangadia, Avinash Saxena and Kaushal Shubhank, Roposo started out as a fashion-focused social network that offered curated choices across categories such as apparel, footwear, accessories and lingerie.

In August 2017, it pivoted. In its current form, Roposo is a short-video platform with a TV-like interface where users can create and upload videos, segregated into 25 different channels and genres. Users can also incorporate filters, stickers and effects, as per information available on its Google app store page. Run by Relevant e-solutions Pvt. Ltd, the app supports 10 languages: Malyalam, English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi and Bengali. Roposo also offers content under specific categories through its channels Haha TV, Bhakti, Look Good-Feel Good and Beats.

The company claims its Android app has been downloaded 40 million times, with more than 200,000 new videos being created by its users every day.

“Today, with 42 million users and over 200,000 daily new users joining the platform from across the nation...we’ve witnessed 75x growth in the past year and the numbers are growing manifold everyday,” Bhangadia stated.

According to filings with the ministry of corporate affairs, Roposo’s operational revenues grew to Rs 83.75 lakh in the financial year 2017-18 from Rs 31.67 lakh in the previous year.

The company also managed to bring down its gross expenditure to Rs 24.75 crore, from Rs 33.27 crore during the period. Employee and marketing expenses continued to drive the majority of expenditure.

Net losses came down to Rs 20.56 crore from Rs 31.98 crore during the period.

Deals in this space

February 2019: Hyderabad-based GIF-searching platform Gifskey raised $1 million (Rs 7.1 crore) in a seed round led by Kstart, the seed fund arm of Kalaari Capital.

February 2019: Video content platform Awaaz raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Matrix Partners.

December 2018: Location-based local language social platform Khidki raised an undisclosed sum in a round led by Axilor Ventures, the investment firm-cum-accelerator led by Infosys founders Kris Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal.

September 2018: Vernacular social networking platform ShareChat raised Rs 720.29 crore ($99.23 million then) in a round led by existing investor Shunwei Capital.