Exclusive: Peak XV acquires over 21% stake in Grapevine

Anonymous social media platform Grapevine has raised its seed round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India). This is the Bengaluru-based startup’s first round.

The board at Grapevine has passed a special resolution to issue 33,333 series seed CCPS at an issue price of Rs 6408.46 each to raise Rs 21.36 crore or $2.6 million, a regulatory filing with the RoC shows.

Peak XV Partners led the round with Rs 20.53 crore while Riverwalk Holdings pumped in Rs 82.15 lakh in this round. Riverwalk Holdings fund is anchored by the Thakral Group and focuses on sectors such as SaaS, fintech and consumer.

According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Grapevine has been valued at around Rs 95.3 crore or $11.62 million (post allotment).

Following the investment, Peak XV has acquired 21.55% of Grapevine while its co-founders Saumil Tripathi, Jainam Talsania, and Shreeyash Dharmadhikari cumulatively hold 65.17%, including ESOPs.

Check TheKredible for Grapevine’s complete shareholding.

Founded in early 2023, Grapevine focuses on unrestricted and anonymous conversations on career, finance, professional and personal lives. It claims that more than 30,000 members from tech companies and startups use the platform.

The company directly competes with Hood (formerly Zorro) and to some extent with FishBowl, Blind and Reddit.

Founded by Jasveer Singh, Deepak Kumar and Abhishek Asthana (popularly known as Gabbar on X), Hood raised $3.2 million in a seed round from 3one4 Capital, Eximius Ventures, Root Ventures in 2021. The firm was backed by more than 15 unicorn founders such as Jayanti Kanani, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Ritesh Agarwal, Kunal Shah, Ankiti Bose, Ashneer Grover, and Lalit Keshre.

Recently, Khatabook’s former executive Virender Singh Kainth also launched a similar platform called Together.