WittyFeed raises Pre-series A funding

India's largest and world's second largest viral content marketing platform, WittyFeed today announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Pre-Series-A round.

The investment is led by independent and seasoned investors like Anand Chandrasekaran (Former Snapdeal / Bharti Airtel CPO), Apurva Chamaria (VP & Head Corporate Marketing, HCL Technologies), Ritesh Malik (Co-Founder, Innov8), along with a group of other marquee investors.

Talking about the investment and the support of these industry leaders, Vinay Singhal, CEO and Co-Founder, WittyFeed said, "WittyFeed is on path to become the world's largest viral content marketing platform where brands share their stories with their consumers and the distribution is taken care of by WittyFeed's AI driven platform. We are delighted to receive great mentorship from Anand Chandrasekaran and other individual investors as investors, mentors, and advisors."

 

"We are elated on getting acknowledged by some of the best entrepreneurs in the country, who have showed tremendous belief in our business model. We are really excited to welcome on board these able leaders who share the same vision as ours and can add great value to our company." further added Vinay.

The company plans to use the proceedings from the funding to strengthen its technology infrastructure, enhance its distribution platform, as well as towards augmenting its product portfolio. This funding will also be used for the expansion of its sales team to dive deep into the content-driven platforms and video making for brands while exploring other domains for which WittyFeed has developed marketing platforms.

WittyFeed was started in September 2014 by Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav and Parveen Singhal from a small hostel room in Chennai. Headquartered at Indore, Madhya Pradesh, WittyFeed has reached from 0 to 250 million page views per month in a short span of 3 years. It has an audience reach of more than One Billion and gets 80 million unique readers and 160 million video views every month.

Talking about his investment in WittyFeed, Apurva Chamaria, VP & Head of Corporate Marketing, HCL Technologies said, "We're presently in the midst of a major shift in which, increasingly, people are cord cutting and entertainment and news is being distributed on social networks and consumed on mobile devices. I believe WittyFeed will benefit from this paradigm shift and emerge as a leading media company of the 21rst century. Most brands need help in thinking and executing like a publisher and WittyFeed has emerged as the trusted partner in helping brands chart this journey. I have been witnessing WittyFeed grow from strength to strength in a very quick time by mastering content creation and viral distribution. I see a brilliant future for them."

Chamaria further added, "According to a Group M report released in February, advertising spent on digital media channels is expected to grow 30 percent to Rs. 9,490 crore in 2017. With advertising spends shifting more and more to social and digital mediums, especially towards content and videos, WittyFeed is uniquely placed to attain huge interest from brands and their custodians."

Chamaria has emerged as one of the top angel investors in the past 2 years having invested in approximately 27 companies in this span of time. Some of his investments include Innov8, Simulanis VR, Lucideus Tech, Chqbook, Ahhaa, etc.

Another investor who came on board to support WittyFeed is Ritesh Malik, Co-founder, Innov8, and a serial entrepreneur. He opined, "WittyFeed holds the potential to become the world's largest content exchange platform and this investment is more than money to the company. We have also joined the advisory board to support the brand in expanding the operations worldwide with much accessible location around the world."

Other investors who have joined hands in this round are seasoned entrepreneurs and professionals. The name includes Ashish Toshniwal (Y Media Labs, CEO), Ajeet Khurana (Angel Investor), Aneil Mahajan (Ex COO, Bhaskar Group), Piyush Goel (Beyond Key Systems Pvt. Ltd., Founder & CEO), Singapore Angel Network, and Harsh Mani Tripathi (Pyoopil Education Technologies, Founder and CEO).

WittyFeed is looking to expand further in the US market as it contributes 30% of company's traffic. Wityfeed recently hit an all-time Alexa rating of #17 globally. Some of the brands which have taken help of WittyFeed's viral capabilities are Zee Network, Tinder, Panasonic, Havmore Icecreams, ITM University, Hyundai, Coke, JIO, Dainik Bhsakar, V Resorts, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Droom, Lakeland, Exide life insurance, Career Launcher and 50 more.

WittyFeed is also an independent creator of virally successful content across 18 categories including travel, inspiration, relationships, health and fitness, food and celebrities.