Exclusive: Opinion gamifying app Probo to raise $10-15 Mn from Sequoia and others

Reward-based opinion and idea sharing app Probo is in talks to raise $12-15 million in a Series A round, according to three sources aware of details of the deal.

“Sequoia and Elevation Capital will put most of the amount in Probo at over 4X premium on its last valuation,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity as the talks are private. 

“It’s also in discussion with more investors, however, these talks are at an early stage. The fresh proceeds will help it to ramp up tech and distribution capabilities,” said the second person who also wished not to be named.

Queries sent to Probo, Sequoia and Elevation Capital did not elicit immediate responses. We’ll update the story in case they do.

Founded by Sachin Gupta and Ashish Garg, Probo is a platform where two participants with differing opinions can put their views at a mutually agreeable price and win rewards. Probo’s app is available for Android users and has topics like sports, education, politics, movies, economy and commerce.

According to the company’s website, it matches a user's opinion to a counter opinion and if the user’s opinion corresponds to the real-life event, he or she will win and earn rewards. In a nutshell, it works on a prediction market model where winning or losing depends on the outcome of an event.

Probo appears to be one of the early evangelisers of event-focused reward platforms for mass users. While this space is in a nascent stage in India, it has been gaining quick grounds in the US and Western markets. Kalshi, Polymarket, Bitclout and Hedgehog are notable players in the US. 

Three-year-old Kalshi scooped up a $30 million Series A round from Sequoia in February whereas Polymarket got backing from Polychain Capital and top-tier angels including Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan.

It’s worth noting that Probo had already received around $2.5 million in a seed round raised early this month from Sequoia, Elevation and a few top-notch angel investors. According to the company’s regulatory filings, it has raised Rs 19 crore in which Sequoia and Elevation have invested Rs 8.25 crore each.

Kunal Shah, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Bhavik Koladiya, Pradeep Parameswaran (President, Uber Asia)and 16 others participated with the remaining sum. According to Fintrackr, Probo was valued at Rs 75 crore or $10 million in its seed financing.

In India, Google does not allow real money gambling apps on its Play Store. While fantasy sports platforms like Dream11 and MPL are still not available on Android and iOS download stores in the country, real-life event-based reward platforms have been regulated in the US under federal law. It will be exciting to see how regulators respond to such models in India as they scale.