Investors keep the faith in Indian social startups, eye GenAI models
MUMBAI : India hasn’t yet produced a social media giant, yet investors continue to pump in money. The hope now lies in Indian startups’ ability to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to build a bumper app. Since the beginning of this year, five startups with AI-driven social products have received cumulative funding of $27.8 million in seed and Series A rounds in addition to one undisclosed round, according to data from research platform Tracxn.
They are social platform Plutus, social media apps Hunch and Explurger, stock-focused social platform OpiGo, and professional social network platform Medial. “We are building a model that learns user behaviour on our platform and provides customised nudges to suit user needs," said Devansh Mehta, founder of Opigo. “Our new feature will act as your personal pocket advisor, utilising AI to provide guidance on everything from finding the best loan rates to tax saving ideas and investment strategies." Investors are putting their bets behind the AI phenomenon, with at least two of them, 100X.VC and WEH Ventures, reworking their social media investment strategy to include AI.
Vatsal Kanakiya, CEO of 100X.VC, said the fund has shifted its funding lens from companies having social graphs to ones that either have AI-driven feed or a community-led product. A social graph is a network of connections between users that includes likes, shares, comments and other forms of interactions. Think Facebook, Instagram, and others of their genre.
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