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3 days ago
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Cash-strapped societal media level Koo, erstwhile drummed up arsenic a homegrown rival to planetary exertion elephantine X (formerly Twitter), has unopen store aft talks with aggregate buyers implicit the past fewer months failed to materialise.
The net startup, which sports a yellowish vertebrate for a logo, had approached media houses and net companies to get it, but the talks did not output the expected outcome, co-founder Mayank Bidawatka said successful a LinkedIn station connected Wednesday.
Most of these companies did not privation to woody with user-generated contented and the “wild quality of a societal media company”, Bidawatka said.
“While we would’ve liked to support the app running, the outgo of exertion services to support a societal media app moving is precocious and we’ve had to instrumentality this pugnacious decision,” the co-founder added.
Prominent wings
Koo had 2.1 cardinal regular progressive users astatine its highest and was “just months away” from beating Twitter successful India successful 2022, but the prolonged backing wintertime forced it to code down its maturation trajectory, according to Bidawatka.
Founded successful 2020 by Aprameya Radhakrishnan and Bidawatka, Koo was considered a homegrown rival enactment to prosecute with the world.
Support from salient politicians including Union commerce curate Piyush Goyal and erstwhile communications curate Ravi Shankar Prasad prompted an influx of users to the platform, reaching a highest of 4.5 cardinal users successful January 2021.
Twitter had astir 24 cardinal users successful India successful 2022, per Statista.
Koo garnered capitalist involvement arsenic well, with Tiger Global and Accel pumping successful upwards of $60 cardinal successful total. The institution was valued astatine $274 cardinal successful 2022, per Tracxn.
However, things went southbound erstwhile the level struggled to monetise, creating a terrible currency crunch amid pugnacious macroeconomic conditions. In April past year, Koo let spell one-third of its 260-member workforce to conserve cash portion it explored “strategic partnerships”.
For 2021-22, Koo reported a nonaccomplishment of ₹197 crore connected ₹14 lakh successful operating revenue, regulatory filings show. The institution has not filed its financials for FY23.
“Indian integer products are being made to planetary standards and it’s clip to make planetary brands from India. As everyone knows, the startup ecosystem globally has witnessed a backing crunch without which Koo would person been connected its mode to accelerated planetary marketplace expansion,” Bidawatka had said successful a LinkedIn station successful February.
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