A little-known India made micro-blogging website seems to have become all the rage with Indian ministers and government officials overnight. On February 9, a group of prominent Indian officials endorsed Koo, a made-in-India alternative to Twitter. While some simply shared links to follow them on Koo, others asked their Twitter followers to join the app to get ?exclusive? updates about their ministries? work.
The microblogging site was co-founded by entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidwatka. Radhakrishna had founded online cab booking service TaxiForSure, which was later on sold to Ola Cabs. Prior to Koo, its parent company namely Bombinate Technologies Pvt Ltd, launched and is operating the Indian version of Quora called Vokal. According to data sourced from Crunchbase, the company raised Series A funding in 2018 from a clutch of investors including Blume Ventures, Kalaari Capital and Accel Partners India. In the latest round of funding announced earlier this month, former Infosys CFO TV Mohandas Pai?s 3one4 Capital also joined the list of those investing in Bombinate Technologies
While the Koo app was launched in early 2020, its participation and the subsequent winning of the government?s Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge brought it under the spotlight. The app, along with other India-made apps like Zoho and Chingari, ie, the local version of TikTok, won the challenge, which was launched by the Centre close on the heels of banning scores of apps with Chinese links citing national security concerns. Following the outcome of the Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge, the app was also mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address.
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