Kalaari participates in Vokal’s $6.5 m Series A funding

Vokal, leading vernacular knowledge sharing platform owned by Bombinate Technologies Pvt. Ltd, raised a $6.5 million Series A fund from Kalaari Capital along with Shunwei Capital, 500 startups, Accel India and Blume Ventures.

According to sources familiar with the development, Kalaari put in close to $1.5 million in the round. Earlier, the company had raised $5 million in its series A round led by Chinese venture capital firm Shunwei Capital.

Commenting on the development, Vokal CEO and Co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna said there is a need to enable the next 500 million internet users with a strong meaningful reason to use the Internet.

"Vokal is building towards that and has the potential to be one of the largest Internet companies in India. Kalaari Capital has been a strong investor in the past 10 years and understands the present fundamental need for a vernacular product to grow the market of Internet users. We see them as strong partners in our journey," said Radhakrishna.

The peer-to-peer knowledge and opinion-sharing platform for non-English internet users has already brought in more than 3 lakh questions. The platform is also witnessing 1000 of questions pouring in every day on multiple topics.

Kalaari Capital Principal Darshit Vora said the company believes most vernacular users will begin their internet journey consuming content in many forms - entertainment, news, information and knowledge.

"Vokal is solving for the knowledge and information needs of vernacular users through a unique platform that has a voice and video first approach, organically growing a strong community of creators and consumers, and 100% platform-originated content. It’s a problem that’s very close to our heart and we are excited to be a part of Vokal’s mission," said Vora.

Vokal Co-founder Mayank Bidawatka said the company has a unique solution for solving the knowledge and information discovery needs of the vernacular market.

"We are a mix between products like Quora and Reddit with an Indian twist – an emphasis on voice and video. Our innovation lies in the Indianisation of existing solutions and providing the easiest way for people to express themselves," said Bidawatka.