Twitter rival Koo raises $30m in funding led by Tiger Global, valuation now close to $150m

Koo has been gaining popularity as a home-gown rival to Twitter amid the latter’s frequent run-ins with the government.  After the endorsement from celebrities and  Government ministers, even investors seem to be positive about its potential. This was evident with Koo raising $30 million led by Tiger Global.

Koo raises $30 million in a fresh financial round

The Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka-founded startup announced that it had raised $30 million in a Series B funding led by Tiger Global. IIFL and Mirae Assets are the new participants while existing investors like Dream Incubator, Blume Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Kalaari Capital, and Accel Partners also participated in the round. The latest investment has raised the valuation of the technology company close to $150 million.

This was another investment for the company after the funding by Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan in March. The funding also came in the wake of the exit of Chinese investors into Bombinate Technologies, the co that owns Koo, as new and exiting investors bought a minority stake in the company.

Koo, founded in 2020, is said to have close to 6.5 million monthly active users and 1 million is reported to have been added in the last month. The app, which allows users to share their thoughts and post other media, is available not just in Hindi and English, but also in Tamil, Kannada, and Marathi.

Right from Union Ministers like Ravi Shankar Prasad to actors like Kangana Ranaut, many have given a shoutout to the platform over the past few months.

The company has stated that it will comply with all the guidelines issued by the government amid tech giants' occasional issues with the GoI on guidelines.