Blume Ventures invests $1.5 mn in professional networking startup TapChief

Bengaluru-based professional networking and consulting platform, TapChief, owned by Pilani Experts Technology Labs, has secured $1.5 million in a seed round from the homegrown investment firm, Blume Ventures. 

The infusion follows an angel round this year in January that saw TapChief raise $650,000 from investors including Paytm, Kunal Shah, Mekin Maheshwari and 500 Startups among others, the company said in a statement. 

This funding round takes the company’s total valuation to $2.5 million, according to TechCircle’s data and research platform, VCCEdge. 

The company last raised funds in June this year. 

Prior to that the firm had raised capital from Paytm and TaxiForSure’s founders in November 2016. 

The company will use the fresh capital to scale its technology, improve existing people management systems and bolster the network of professionals on the platform, added the statement. 

TapChief was founded in 2016 by Shashank Murali, Binay Krishna, and Arjun Krishna from the hostel rooms at BITS Pilani. 

The company calls itself a ‘future-of-work’ platform which enables millions of professionals to earn without a full-time gig. The firm claims to have helped more than 100,000 professionals and brands to connect, develop their personal brand, learn from industry experts and land contracts and projects with businesses. The professionals on Tapchief have reportedly garnered $2 million in earnings across over 25000 gigs. 

“Future of Work is a key pillar of our investment thesis with nearly 25% of organisations expected to have more than one-third of their workforce as independent professionals in the next decade. The fundamental concept of the workplace has evolved and at TapChief, a young team has been relentlessly building what we believe is a global proposition from India and we at Blume are proud to be early partners in this rocketship,” said Sanjay Nath, Managing Partner of Blume Ventures, who will also be joining TapChief’s Board of Directors as part of the deal.  

Founded in 2011, Blume Ventures is a Mumbai-based early stage venture capital fund that focuses on technology startups based primarily in India. According to VCCEdge, Blume Venture primarily manages three, India-dedicated funds- Blume Ventures Fund I, Blume Ventures India Fund II and III with a combined $82 million under management. The lead partners at the firm are co-founder and managing partner, Sanjay Dileep Nath, co-founder and managing partner,  Karthik Reddy Bezawada and Partner Ashish Fafadia. 

The company competes with other work fulfilment platforms such as Awign, Sheroes and GigIndia. Bengaluru-based Awign recently raised  $4 million in Series A round from Work10M, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Eagle10.