Cricketer Yuvraj Singh's investment initiative Youwecan Ventures is looking to back startups in healthcare services, education and sports talent scouting even as it gears up to leverage on celebrity fan following on social media for digital marketing.
The venture, which has earmarked Rs 30-50 crore corpus for investments in three years, is also considering backing entrepreneurs in fashion space.
"We are looking to invest in healthcare services, education and sports talent scouting from grassroots level. Yuvraj himself is very keen on these sectors," Youwecan Ventures Founder and Chief Investment Officer Nishant Singhal told PTI.
Besides, he said the venture is also keeping a keen eye on the fashion vertical, which has a lot of potential.
When asked about funds that could be deployed, he said: "We do not have specific targets. We are early stage investors and since we started, we have made 12 investments and deployed about USD 1.5 million."
Each investments is about Rs 30-50 lakh, he added.
Commenting on the company's latest initiative, Yral in partnership with AdLift, a digital marketing firm, Singhal said: "We are a significant minority stake holder in the venture. This will help brands reach customers by engaging with celebrities in the digital space."
Bullish on its potential, he added: "The total reach of the top 50 celebrities is close to 100 million which is 33 per cent of India's internet population. Digital marketing spends are estimated to reach USD 2 billion by 2019 and if only 5 per cent is led by celebrities we estimate the market size to be USD 100 million."
AdLift CEO & Co-Founder Prashant Puri said Yral will help brands to connect with celebrities directly to leverage on their immense fan following bypassing multiple agencies.
He said Yral will deliver the right audience and scalable reach to its advertisers by leveraging modern social media platforms of celebrities.
Youwecan Ventures has so far invested in startups, including healthians.Com, sportybeans.Com, Cartisan, JetSetGo, Vyomo and Moovo.
