Closed a total $3.6M, including the Pre-Series funding from Anthill Ventures, ViNners, Sana Ventures, SOSV and Duane Park
Bengaluru, NFAPost: Woovly, India’s social commerce platform that enables users to purchase instantly, using AI-powered brand-tagged user generated content, is in talks with investors to raise $10 million as part of their Series-A funding.
The company had secured a $3.6 million investment, participated by Anthill Ventures, ViNners and Sana Ventures among others.
The company said the Series-A funding is a strategic direction to solidify its content and brand partnerships to cater to the growing demand in social commerce space.
Of the targetted $10 million Series-A fund raise, Woovly has already received partial commitment from marquee investors like Anthill Ventures and others.
Commenting on the fund-raising, Woovly Cofounder and CEO Venkat J said since the launch of the social commerce platform the company community’s has seen 400% growth year-on-year.
“This has resulted in $2 million ARR (Accounting Rate of Return) within six months of our commerce launch and is growing at 30% month-on-month. This boosted our investors’ confidence in the business model and the team. Our vision is to enable the next 50M short-form content creators to make money that is their largest challenge today,” said Venkat J.
Woovly’s social media feature allows users to upload short video contents and visuals of the branded products with reviews and recommendations for other users to discover and shop on the platform – giving a real-time word-of-the-mouth marketing feature on the platform.
The app’s built-in e-commerce functionality allows users to purchase items straight from Woovly’s official online brand stores.
Woovly has collaborations with a variety of direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies in the lifestyle products category that include global popular brands along with niche and indigenous brands.
The unique product design of Woovly is a value-proposition for the brands as it creates an omnichannel for them to reach targeted consumers online. These unique product features positively impact the purchasing decisions of the users.
Woovly’s another significant differentiating factor is a strong network of influencers on its own platform. Woovly CTO and CEO Neha Suyal said social commerce is driven by trust, and at Woovly is building the trust on brands and products through User Generated Content (UGC) driven by Micro and Nano influencers.
“The platform has already on boarded 18,000+ micro influencers and content creators who are earning money by driving content about brands, products and their experiences,”said Neha Suyal.
Commenting on the investment rounds, Anthill Ventures Partner Kabir Kochhar said the company is excited about the future of Woovly because as an emerging market leader and category creator in video commerce, Woovly has found a sweet spot in terms of demand, supply, and pricing metrics.
“All stakeholders derive a unique value proposition in Woovly’s ecosystem. Product users and influencers get incentivised to share authentic product videos. Potential buyers get a clutter-free experience helping them navigate the vast D2C ecosystem. While, brands have found a high conversion sales channel,” said Kabir Kochhar.
Woovly drives commerce using its community and content with the trust as the core factor, generating value for brands, users and influencers. The Series-A funding will boost Woovly’s product feature, adding components like live-streaming and gamification on the platform.
Woovly was launched in 2019 by Venkat J., Neha Suyal, and Hithendra R and is becoming the most loved e-shopping site for Indian millennials who look for trustworthy recommendations for a variety of lifestyle products.
Woovly is an AI-powered social commerce platform helping users discover brands & products from the user generated content (UGC), further letting them to shop instantly on the Woovly app.
Woovly also identifies and rewards individuals for brand loyalty. Woovly’s users can watch short video contents, reviews & recommendations on various brands & products in the lifestyle segment.
Woovly is a one-stop platform for influencers and users to promote & shop, collaborate with brands and earn incentives. Woovly’s technology uses artificial intelligence, user-generated content and engagement algorithms to create a unique direct-to-consumer channel, resulting in extraordinary and unprecedented user insights.
The firm’s AI auto-detects products from the user generated contents and tags brands, and directs shoppers to shop instantly on the same platform. This allows individuals to monetize their influence while brands simultaneously support authentic influencers; leading to empowering original content creator community.
