Exclusive: Tiger Global leads $26 Mn Series A round in Kutumb

Tiger Global has led a $26 million round in Bharat-focused social community enabler Kutumb, making it one of the largest Series A rounds for any Indian startup.

The board of Kutumb has approved the allotment of 2,919 Series A preference shares at an issue price of Rs 657,140.76 per share to raise Rs 192 crore or $26 million, regulatory filings show.

Tiger Global has invested $18.5 million followed by Quiet Capital which has pumped in a little over $3 million. Rocketship VC, Nirman Investments, AL Trust and others including angel investor Sujeet Kumar have invested the remaining amount in the current round.

While Tiger Global has been in talks with Kutumb for the past three-four months, Entrackr had exclusively reported about the participation of new investors, including Quiet Capital, on May 19.

According to Fintrackr’s estimates, Kutumb has raised the Series A round at a post-money valuation of $167-170 million.

With the latest investment round, Kutumb has made its entry into the top five list of largest Series A rounds raised by Indian startups ever. Ola Electric, Ananth Narayanan-led Mensa Brands, fintech startup FamPay and home interior design startup Design Cafe are ahead of Kutumb with $58 million, $50 million, $38 million and $29 million raised respectively in their Series A rounds.

Kutumb’s $26 million Series A will replace Kunal Shah’s CRED in the top five list which had raised $25 million in its Series A round.

Kutumb has also passed a separate resolution to create its ESOP Pool of 1,400 options. According to Fintrackr’s calculation, the ESOP pool represents a nearly 7% stake in the Bengaluru-based startup worth $12.6 million.

Following the allotment of shares, stakes of co-founders --Mohit Sharma, Naveen Dewangan and Vipul Allawadhi -- have been diluted to 53.8% from 63.81% in the previous round concluded in December 2020.

Kutumb, a multilingual app, allows users to create apps to connect with people in their community, share news, updates of members and discuss any issue. According to Sensor Tower data, the Android-only app has been downloaded close to 12 million times since its inception in September 2020. 

The company was a part of the fourth cohort of Sequoia’s accelerator program Surge and counts Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal along with Whiteboard Capital as its early backers. At present, the company has no direct competition. However, there are multiple early-stage companies such as Localliti that are set to explore the community-driven social media space. 

The size of opportunity and investors’ interest in the segment appears to be the primary inspiration for new startups in this segment.

Public, a video-focused hyperlocal platform, had scooped up $41 million led by A91 Partners in March 2021. The firm is an indirect competition for Kutumb and experts anticipate that Public is likely to foray into Kutumb’s core area sooner than later.