Bengaluru-based Vokal has raised ₹34.5 crores ($5 million) in series A funding led by Chinese venture capital firm Shunwei Capital along with the participation from existing investors including 500 startups, Accel India, and Blume Ventures.
The fresh funds will be used to boost the team and build technology for the platform.
Vokal was founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka in 2017. It provides a platform for Indian users to gain and share knowledge in Indian languages. The users can ask a question and get answers in the form of audio from other users on the platform.
Talking about the new partnership, Aprameya Radhakrishna, Founder of Vokal, said, “India is a large market and the language Internet users are underserved today. We are bullish on Vokal’s ability to create an information and knowledge platform to cater to this segment of users. They are proven entrepreneurs and have built large Internet businesses before. We are happy to be partnering them in this mission.”
Vokal claims to have over 200,000 questions on the platform with thousands of questions and answers posted every day across different topics. The platform also provides the option of live streaming for experts to share information with users. Currently, the platform is available in Hindi but support for other languages will be added soon, making the platform more accessible to the Indian community.
The platform is available as a website and can also be accessed from an app on both Android and iOS devices. Majority of its users are from the northern states of the country including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
According to a study by KPMG and Google titled ‘Indian Languages- Defining India’s Internet’ in 2017, regional language users are expected to account for nearly 75% of India’s internet user base by 2021. This makes it imperative to create quality content for the growing user base and provides an opportunity for growth for the startups catering to the regional language users.