Kalaari Capital infuses $1.5 Mn in vernacular knowledge sharing platform Vokal

TaxiForSure co-founder’s Aprameya Radhakrishna led vernacular knowledge sharing startup Vokal, has raised $1.5 million from Kalaari Capital as a part of Series A round.

The extended round comes within two months when the Bengaluru-based startup had raised $5 million led by Shunwei Capital. 500 startups, Accel India & Blume Ventures also participated then.

Vokal is Kalaari’s rare investment in local language-focused content space.

Floated by Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, Vokal is a user-generated content platform that allows one to learn from others. Most of Vokal’s current users are from the Hindi-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.

The peer-to-peer knowledge sharing app claims to have over 300,000 questions, with thousands of questions pouring in every day on varied topics unique to India.

Besides text content, Vokal also has a live video streaming feature where experts share their knowledge with users. It is planning to expand into regional languages such as Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu in the next few months, reveals the company's press statement.

According to Bidawwatka, Vokal is a mix of products like Quora & Reddit with an Indian twist – an emphasis on voice and video.

Of late, a slew of startups focused on local language has raised funds, especially from Chinese investors such as Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital. In vernacular content space, DailyHunt, ShareChat, MyUpchar, and NewsDog have also raised funds.

Meanwhile, Amazon has been focusing on Hindi language and recently launched Android app for Hindi audience.